Life App: Not For Sale

Koinonia

Life App: Not For Sale

September 18, 2022 • Pastor Ben Hiwale • Daniel 5

When the account in Daniel 5 was written, it was 539 BC. Nearly 70 years had passed since Daniel and his friends were brought to Babylon as slaves. Daniel is most likely around 80 years old. King Nebuchadnezzar is dead and now his grandson Belshazzar is on the throne. Belshazzar is not wise but prideful. He was arrogant and took for granted everything that was handed to him. As this account begins we see him partying, but this was not just any party. This was a party that had every perverse activity being celebrated. Who throws a party when you know that your enemy is camped right outside of your walls? What picture is he trying to paint? Does he want everyone to have courage? Is he drowning his own fears with alcohol? Or he is so full of pride that he thinks no one has the ability to fight and defeat Babylon?

Similar questions can be asked to us when we are faced with overwhelming circumstances. How did you react in the past and what would you do now? How do you feel about power grids failing? Supply chains breaking down? Finances getting restricted? Fuel shortages? Would you stockpile?

Pascal (a 17th century French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, writer, and Catholic theologian) says we have a difficult time dealing with death, and usually people will turn to jokes or some humor to take the sting out of that conversation. Pascal used several analogies but one stood out, that of a car heading off the road into a steep valley with no way of stopping it or getting out. He said you would find people distracting themselves by observing the natural scenery or by trying to engage in a light conversation instead of thinking about the coming death.

The question this account poses may not be that obvious. Are you prepared for the end? The difference between Belshazzar and you and me is that he found out when he would die, but we don’t know that exact day, although we know it is coming. We only have one life that is given to us. How are you doing with yours? Eternity is all that matters at the very end. You have an opportunity to choose now and have unquestioned confidence that you will thrive and not just survive through all the seasons of life, and when that final day comes, that you will be welcomed home by your Creator into eternity.

A Fire to Warm and a Torch to Shine

November 17, 2024 • Dylan Ocorr • Acts 4:31–35

The Christians are the only light for culture. There is no other hope to brighten up a dark world than for the redeemed of the Lord to rise up and shine. But what does that look like exactly? How does the heat and light of the gospel flood into a cold and dark world? When the believers prayed for boldness in Acts 4, it wasn’t a simple prayer for a little more courage than they had before. It was a desperate plea to God to help them keep their flame lit. They were faced with a serious problem - Peter and John (their leaders) were threatened by those in power. So they turned to God with one accord and prayed that he might strengthen them to continue to obey and preach the gospel. The result was two-fold. They (1) boldly proclaimed the word of God to the outside world, and they (2) built a vibrant Christian community. In other words, they cultivated a blazing fire around which they gathered with their brothers and sisters in Christ, and they lit a blazing torch which they carried to the outside world. There was a fire to warm them and a torch they shone on the world. When the smoldering embers of their spiritual light were threatened, the Holy Spirit fanned their community and evangelism into a ferocious flame. They had a strong base and a strong attack. They lit themselves and the world. This community was no ordinary social group. It was characterized by a radical selflessness and profound sense of unity. We find these same words - “selflessness” and “unity” - used in the secular world. But when they are used (or rather, simply mused) in those circles, they are thought of in a much lower grade. An ancient hieroglyphic compared to the vivid picture of an overpriced TV from Best Buy. The selflessness and unity of this Acts 4 community would send shockwaves through the world today. Much like how a caveman might respond to seeing the glimmer of a new 60-inch Samsung. A Christian community, properly set ablaze, will shine with stunning distinction against the bleak communities that the world offers. In the US Army survival manual, there is a chapter on building a fire. The last sentence of the intro to that chapter says this, “Remember, weigh your need for fire against your need to avoid enemy detection.” Fires provide all sorts of benefits to those who are around them, but they also draw the attention of the enemy. The stronger the fire, the easier the target for the enemy. Thus, the plea for boldness and power, of necessity, accompanies a people who have a well-flamed community. That’s how the light works. It repels the wolves and attracts the sheep. And there are yet many “other sheep that are not of this fold” and Jesus will “bring them also and they will listen to His voice”. So let us inflame ourselves by the Holy Spirit, so as to bring in as many who are fleeing from the darkness as possible.

The Only Light for Culture

November 10, 2024 • Dylan Ocorr • Matthew 5:14–16

With the 2024 election over, you may feel that you have your ‘man’ in the White House. You may feel thrilled at the possibility of the US government over the next 2-4 years. You may feel that a major victory was just won for the sake of the pro-life movement and the Biblical sexual ethic. But don’t rest on your laurels! It is a grave mistake to feel that a political victory is a complete victory. Even if all the right laws were to be passed, Christian Supreme Court Justices appointed, state constitutions re-written for the glory of God, and the Chick-fil-a sauce recipe was leaked… there would still be work to be done. The laurels are not yet complete. They are yet to fully blossom. Don’t rest on a rose bud, you’ll crush it before it blooms and snuff out its glory. Jesus said that the Christian people, those who have been born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, are the light of the world. The only hope for a dark world is light. And the only light that exists is that which the Christian carries in his spirit. Too often we forget this glorious truth and think the “light” of God to be housed in some ideal or doctrine. We consume ourselves with talk of laws and policy, as if those legal statutes carry the light of God in them. They do not. They may point to the light, but they are not the light themselves. WE are the light. Those who are born again by the Spirit of God, are alone the light of the world. Shall we fight and advocate for righteous legislation in our land? A thousand times ‘Yes!’ For when the laws of a nation reflect the glory of God, they clear the skies for the sun to shine. They weed out the garden for the rose to bloom. Any Rochesterian knows the daily slog produced by those long and cloudy wintry months. Our moods swing low, seasonal depression rises as the sun hides. But those occasional February days, when the clouds part and the sun gleams off the perfect white snow - they remind us that there is a sun, that it is warm, and the dreary days will soon end. Righteous laws have the same effect. They clear away the moral and social fog. They warm up the soul and remind us of God - that there is a real moral standard. But they only clear the way for the light to shine clearly. And what is that light which righteous laws make room for? It is the light of the transformed soul. It is the light of the “glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” to which a person has been totally awakened to. If that light does not shine like a “city on a hill”, then what good are the laws? What good is the clearing of the skies if the true light is but a dim whimper of a single candle. LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE! You are the light of the world. No doctrine or law can light up the dark world, but only you! Only the soul that has been transferred from the “kingdom of darkness” and “brought into the light” can emit the light that the world needs. The laws may clear the skies, but you must shine the light. You are the light of the world.

Rise Up, O Man of God!

June 16, 2024 • Pastor Ray Viola • Titus 2:6–7

On this Father’s Day 2024, listen to this promise from Scripture regarding the man who fears the Lord. “Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments” (Psalm 112:1). There is a ubiquitous story told in prison ministry circles that speaks to the state of fatherhood in our day. One year, a group decided to provide cards for inmates on Mother’s Day. The response was overwhelming, as nearly all the inmates showed up to sign and send cards to their mothers. The event was so successful that the group decided to do it again on Father’s Day. Almost no one participated. The point of this story? Well, it depends on who you ask. However, at the heart of the discrepancy is fatherlessness, both in terms of the men who are absent from their children’s lives (a major indicator of future incarceration, and a whole host of other maladies), and in terms of the culture’s slow, steady slide into the abyss of radical feminism and anti-masculinity. It’s a two-edged sword; (1) fathers are not there, and (2) the culture argues increasingly that they are not necessary. The Biblical laws of design, like the laws of God in nature, are timeless. The law of gravity that “began” when God created the universe are arsenal today as they were then. One of the greatest and most damaging aspects in today’s culture is the subtle (or not so subtle) undermining of the biblical teaching of manhood and fatherhood, and we are seeing the deadly consequences it is having in our society. I believe that our Heavenly Father is calling ALL men of God, and in particular fathers to rise up and hold up the biblical standard of being a husband and father. The Christian marriage, family structure and design as is seen in Genesis was created by God. This creational order was established according to the infinite wisdom of God at the beginning of the creation of the world and is fundamental to the order of both the state and the church. When this order is violated or rebelled against, the outcome is confusion and chaos. In God's creation order He has made man to be the head of the Christian home for functional purposes. Headship does not mean that God values man more than a woman, and it most certainly does not mean that husbands should be a dictator. I have put together an acronym for the name Father. F- He Fears God. A- He Adores his Wife. T- He Teaches his children by example and precept. H- He Chooses to be a vessel of Honor inside and outside of the home for the glory of God. E- He Exercises himself unto godliness. R- He Reflects the character of the Lord Jesus Christ in word and deed. My prayer and heart’s desire for every father is that God’s Spirit would ignite within each of our hearts a renewed passion for Jesus Christ, with the overflow of that passion being the fruit that manifests the biblical design for a husband and father as a man if God that brings glory to the name of Jesus Christ. SELAH