Out of Neutral | Grace Baptist Church

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b23a868a65e24fb5da70bb/974620e6-f156-4651-9dbf-fc26f95fa967/OON+2024m12w4.jpg?format=1000w] We’re all bombarded with more information than we can process. Recounting the most popular articles and videos from Out of Neutral at the end of the year is my way of helping you see what you might have overlooked or missed. But it’s also a way for me to see the kinds of themes that people are interested in learning about. This year, people were drawn to posts about the Bible, theology, and some of the challenges of the Christian life. Here are the top 10 of 2024. 10. HOW TO START A CHRISTIAN CULT [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/1/24/how-to-start-a-christian-cult] Cults thrive on twisting truth. By isolating verses, ignoring context, and using fear over grace, they turn gospel freedom into chains. 9. GOOD THINGS GOD MIGHT BE DOING WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/6/12/good-things-god-might-be-doing-when-bad-things-happen] Why does God allow suffering in our lives? While the question is timeless, Jesus’ perspective offers surprising insights into how God redeems trials for our good. 8. THREE WAYS OUR VIEWS ON MONEY WOULD SHOCK THE EARLY CHURCH [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/12/4/three-ways-our-views-on-money-would-shock-the-early-church] What would a first-century Christian think of our excuses for not giving? Their radical generosity might challenge everything we believe about what it means to follow Jesus. 7. HOW TO LOVE YOUR ENEMY WHEN YOUR ENEMY’S AN ABUSIVE FAMILY MEMBER [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/10/16/how-to-love-your-enemy-when-your-enemys-an-abusive-family-member] Christians are called to love their enemies, but with an abusive person, it's not so simple. When does loving become enabling? How do you protect your personal safety? This post examines the tensions. 6. IS THE KING JAMES VERSION THE ONLY BIBLE TRANSLATION YOU SHOULD READ? [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/10/2/is-the-king-james-version-the-only-bible-translation-you-should-read] The King James Version has been a reliable translation and trusted Bible for more than 400 years. This post looks at how to evaluate the modern translations in light of it. 5. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE CONFUSE FRIENDSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/9/18/what-happens-when-we-confuse-friendship-and-fellowship] Our longing for connection reflects how God designed us, but true fellowship in the church is more than friendship—it’s about mutual growth and encouragement in Christ. This post looks at why that distinction matters. 4. HOW BAPTISTS AND CHRISTIAN REFORMED BELIEVERS SPEAK PAST EACH OTHER ON BAPTISM [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/1/17/how-baptists-and-christian-reformed-believers-speak-past-each-other-on-baptism] The when and how of baptism sparks passionate debate among Christians, but the conversation deepens our understanding of God’s covenants and calls us to reflect on Scripture with humility. 3. FOUR LESSONS FROM JOSHUA ABOUT THE BATTLE FOR YOUR FAITH [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/4/17/four-lessons-from-joshua-about-the-battle-for-your-faith] What can an ancient book about warfare teach Christians today? Joshua reveals surprising truths about spiritual victory, struggle, and the hope we have in a greater Saviour. 2. WHY DON’T CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS READ THE SAME BIBLE? [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/1/10/why-dont-catholics-and-protestants-read-the-same-bible] Why do Catholic and Protestant Bibles differ? It’s not about translations or changes over time. The answer reveals the heart of what each believes. 1. WHAT ATTRACTS US TO THE STORY OF NOAH’S ARK DISTRACTS US FROM ITS MESSAGE [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2024/3/20/what-attracts-us-to-the-story-of-noahs-ark-distracts-us-from-its-message] What if everything you thought you knew about Noah’s Ark missed the point? Beyond the animals and the flood, there’s a message we need to hear. That wraps up this year’s posts! If you have a question—big or small—that you’d like me to explore in the new year, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you. In awe of Him, Paul

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b23a868a65e24fb5da70bb/939be100-ebfd-469e-a59e-ec6bf08a2b83/OON+2024m12w3.jpg?format=1000w] For many people, the happiness we expect at Christmas only magnifies the pain of the challenges. The over-the-top joy in sugary-sweet Christmas movies can make us feel like we’re the only ones who are hurting. But the story of the first Christmas is actually a dark tale that both acknowledges our pain and points to our hope. Consider the harsh realities of the first Christmas described in Luke’s Gospel and what they reveal. THE CENSUS STIRRED FINANCIAL STRESS AND POLITICAL RESENTMENT A reading of the Christmas story often begins with a statement about a census (Luke 2:1-2). We usually think about those forms we get in the mail where we’re asked how many people live in our home and what languages we speak. A census in biblical times was usually about taxation. When Joseph and Mary got the news that they would have to register, it would come with both financial burden and political resentment. Rome wanted more money! It’s not what you wanted to hear when you were expecting your first baby in an unplanned pregnancy. THE JOURNEY WAS DANGEROUS AND EXHAUSTING We tend to romanticize Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem (Luke 2:3-4). We picture Mary on a donkey and Joseph leading the animal gently, but nowhere in Scripture does it mention how they travelled. What we do know is that the distance is about 150 kilometres. You can drive that by car today in two to three hours, but it would have taken closer to a week for Joseph and Mary. And since everyone was travelling at the same time, it would have felt like rush hour traffic on a long weekend. We can imagine the discomfort that Mary would have felt. THE STABLE SPELLED REJECTION AND DISAPPOINTMENT I’m not sure nativity scenes would have ever become a holiday tradition if Jesus had been born in a hospital. There’s something about those animals and the rustic surroundings that made for a great Christmas decoration. But the lack of a proper room must have felt like the last straw (Luke 2:7). After a long journey, you want to relax. And surely every pregnant mother craves a little comfort. Having to put your newborn in an animal feeding trough must have felt cruel. EVERY DETAIL IN THE CHAOTIC STORY HAD A GOOD, BUT INVISIBLE, PURPOSE The painful realities of the Christmas story can change how we see our own circumstances. Neither Joseph nor Mary could have seen anything good about what was happening to them. And yet as we look back at their story, we can understand God’s purposes. The census ensured that Jesus’ birth would be dated since these events were of interest to historians, religious or otherwise. The journey to Bethlehem fulfilled a 700-year-old prophecy of where the Messiah would be born (Micah 5:2). And the fact that there was no room in the inn foreshadowed the rejection Jesus would face but also His willingness to stand with the poor and the outsiders. Everything was just as God wanted it after all. As you reflect on how these painful circumstances could fulfill God’s good purposes, it gives you hope as you consider your own disappointments. The Christmas story is not so much about happy endings or perfect circumstances. It’s about light in the darkness. It’s about a Saviour born in the midst of the struggle. It’s about a wise God carrying out a good plan when it must have seemed like everything was out of control. If God did that at the first Christmas, then He’s continuing to do that today. Think about something that makes Christmas hard this year, and choose to trust God’s good purposes by faith, and find hope in His plan for you. In awe of Him, Paul

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b23a868a65e24fb5da70bb/c5bae7d0-b6d2-477d-a9bc-f69d7d805315/OON+2024m12w2v2.jpg?format=1000w] Painful trials have a way of testing our coping strategies. The Book of Job introduces a man whose suffering included unimaginable financial devastation, unrelenting physical pain, and the tragic loss of his children. His story helps us to see the limitations of some of our usual responses and gives us more effective means of relief. 1. SOMETIMES FRIENDS CAN DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD As tragedy hits Job, three friends “made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him” (Job 2:11). It feels at first as if they will be just what he needs. Unfortunately, they aren’t. As they begin to speak into his life and try to interpret what’s happening to him, it’s clear that they are just adding to his pain. At one point, Job calls for them to stop: “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all” (Job 16:2). It seems that Job’s friends are given to us as a warning. Well-meaning people can say some insensitive and hurtful things in times of grief – particularly if they haven’t suffered themselves (2 Corinthians 1:4). 2. HIDING UNDER YOUR COVERS CAN MAKE THINGS WORSE If you’re struggling with your circumstances and hurt by your friends, the temptation is to withdraw altogether. Job tried this, too. At one point, he said, “My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint” (Job 7:13). It didn’t. His problems were only amplified under the covers. The way Max Lucado put it was, “The cave has no answers.” Hiding and hoping for the storm to pass only gives it more power over us. 3. ADDING REGRET TO YOUR PAIN STEALS FROM YOUR COMFORT As his suffering intensified, Job was helped by reminding himself of the big picture. He would eventually be remembered for the decisions he had made and the life he lived despite his circumstances. He encouraged himself that a life of faithfulness is its own comfort. In Job 6:10, he said, “This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” When the heat is turned up, it’s easy to turn to temptation, but Job realized that would only add regret to his pain. He purposed to glorify God. 4. GOD’S TRUTH BRINGS COMFORT IN SUFFERING The physical losses in Job’s case were made so much harder by the emotional anguish he experienced. His friends condemned him with a steady barrage of accusations that weren’t true. At one point, he says to them, “How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood” (Job 21:34). While Job’s friends may have been unique, most people struggle with confusing or condemning thoughts of one form or another when hard times hit. Job had an incomplete picture of God, but focusing on what he knew and understood of God’s truth gave him hope and counteracted the lies that he kept hearing (Job 16:19; 23:10; 19:25-27). When we suffer, we need to hear God’s truth more than ever. 5. REPENTANCE UNLOCKS COMFORT IN OUR PAIN When you’re reading a book of the Bible and see a word repeated a number of times, it’s worth checking the occurrences of that word in a concordance or app that allows you to search it. Often the biblical authors would point to a theme they were developing by using repetition. Comfort is one of the keywords in Job’s story. In Job 42:6, however, the underlying Hebrew word is translated with a different word – “repent.” After hearing God speak out of the whirlwind, Job says, “Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” That one Hebrew word can include the sense of either comfort, repentance, or both. Here both are probably intended. God’s words have brought clarity and self-awareness to Job that he didn’t have before, and so it’s correct to say that he repented. But that repentance also brought great comfort to Job. He was reoriented to God’s truth, and it built his hope, undid the lies, and released him from the confusion he struggled with. This is the turning point in Job’s healing. When life is difficult, we think that comfort will only come in gentle thoughts and quiet relief. Often, what we most need is an encounter with God. We need to see Him more clearly and trust Him more deeply. We need to better understand His purposes and see where we’ve lost sight of them. This ultimately brings comfort to a true believer. 6. GOD WILL EVENTUALLY BRING HIS PEOPLE THE COMFORT THEY LONG FOR Job found relief in an encounter with God while he was still on the ash heap. But that wasn’t the only comfort he got. Job’s story ends with his losses restored and his life renewed. The isolation he felt from his unsympathetic friends was replaced by reconciliation (Job 42:8) and reunion. Job 42:11 says, “Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.” This is the comfort that Job had been seeking since he first experienced his tragedy. It comes to him now only after he’s learned to find comfort in other places. It’s given to us here to encourage us that a day is coming for all of God’s people when we will meet God and experience the comfort we so desperately long for. That hope can comfort us even as we wait for it to be realized. Reading a single keyword, in this case, “comfort,” across an entire book can give us a view that no single chapter or verse can provide. Learn to look for repetition as you read, and may you find the comfort you need as you look to God today. In awe of Him, Paul Interested in learning more about the Book of Job? Click here for the sermon series: When Tragedy Strikes [https://www.gracebc.ca/sermons/series/job-when-tragedy-strikes]

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b23a868a65e24fb5da70bb/ef69f2a0-3254-4821-8a5c-2bf46b8e19f4/OON+2024m12w1.jpg?format=1000w] Imagine explaining our lifestyle to a Christian from the first century. Cars, smartphones, streaming services, and online shopping have turned luxuries into necessities. Our homes overflow with furniture, closets with clothes, and refrigerators with food. Yet, in this age of unparalleled wealth, our giving reveals a poverty that would have baffled the early church. Consider the following statements through the eyes of Jesus’ first followers. “I CAN’T AFFORD TO GIVE” There’s no question that many people are struggling financially right now. Inflation is crazy, housing prices are unaffordable, and credit card debt burdens many. And yet the standard of what we “need” to live today would be unrecognizable to almost any other generation in history. The early church believed that a commitment to Jesus should involve an adjustment in a person’s lifestyle. People sold properties to have more money to give to the work of God (Acts 4:34-35). Even people with very little were commended for the sacrifices they made to give. Jesus famously praised a poor widow for putting a penny in the offering box – not just because it was so little but because “she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live one” (Mark 12:42-44). Similarly, Paul held up the example of the Macedonians whose “generosity” came from “their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty” and resulted in them “begging … earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:1-4). To someone who couldn’t afford to give, the early Christians would surely advise them to reduce their expenses, be content with less, and put God first in their finances. Statistics reveal that as income rises, the percentage people give away often decreases. In the end, giving reflects the priorities of the heart. “I DON’T HAVE TO TITHE” Statistics say that only 5 to 10% of church attendees give at least a tithe or 10% of their income to God. Some argue: “None of the New Testament letters ever mention tithing.” I’ve addressed this topic before (“Why Doesn’t the New Testament Talk More About Tithing? [https://www.gracebc.ca/blog/2021/2/24/why-doesnt-the-new-testament-talk-more-about-tithing]”) but this feels like a case of being technically right but spiritually wrong. If you’re going to be precise and talk about the fact that there aren’t any Christian commands to tithe, you also need to note that Jesus said to “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy” (Luke 12:33) and warned that “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). It’s not as if Jesus was urging people to scale back from giving a tithe. If anything, he was encouraging more. Research shows that Christians who tithe seem to understand this. Most committed tithers go beyond 10%, with 77% giving more than a tenth of their income to God. Once you understand Christian giving, generosity and gratefulness guide the amount. “I LIKE TO GIVE TO MORE PERSONAL NEEDS THAN MY LOCAL CHURCH” One of the reasons people give for not contributing to the church is that they like to give to other needs. Missionaries make direct appeals, family members want our help, and in some countries a little money can go a long way. Generosity dictates that we try to respond where we can. But to not give priority in your giving to the local church you attend would be a strange idea to the early church. Even as they saw that the needs were great, rather than everyone independently responding, the first disciples brought their offerings and “laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:35). In the Old Testament, no one would have considered withholding their temple offering to help a relative buy seed for his field." It’s a question of both/and not either/or. While personal giving often feels more rewarding because of the immediate impact, somebody still needs to pay for less glamorous essentials like heating bills, elevator maintenance, and children’s ministry curriculum. Neglecting the local church in favour of personal giving may feel satisfying, but it ignores the place that the body of Christ is called to play in fulfilling Jesus’ mission. The early church understood that giving as a Christian is about declaring that Jesus is Lord over every part of life. If we truly grasped their perspective, it would free us from the values that burden us with financial strain and give money such power over our lives. In awe of Him, Paul

[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b23a868a65e24fb5da70bb/65ec33f6-115d-4102-8575-deae14335d4b/OON+2024m11w4v2.jpg?format=1000w] I thought I had strong convictions. Maybe you do, too. What I learned was that many of my beliefs were borrowed from other people and hadn’t been tested, applied, or internalized. What I thought were convictions were loosely held ideas that wouldn’t hold up. I’ve come to recognize the cheaper substitutes to convictions that we often mistake for the real thing. As you consider them, reflect on your own beliefs and try to discern whether they’re truly rooted or just borrowed. 1. THINGS WE DON’T HAVE STRONG REASONS TO DENY Maybe it’s something you heard from your parents or picked up in a sermon. It sounded right, so you assumed that you believed it. In reality, though, you just didn’t deny it. You may not have thought deeply enough to test it against alternatives you might face. The example of the Bereans is helpful here – they took the things they heard and then personally examined them in light of Scripture “to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). When we skip this step, true conviction isn’t formed. 2. THINGS WE GO ALONG WITH WHEN OTHERS AROUND US DO When we’re surrounded by people who act and speak in certain ways, our tendency is to mirror them. We may not be birds, but we tend to flock together. There are certain truths that we think we believe because we like a preacher who believes them or because we attend a church that teaches them. And it’s a positive thing when your beliefs and actions are shaped by the people around you, but unless you take the time to personally own those beliefs, you’ll find them slip away when you’re in the company of people who oppose them. In Jesus’ day, John tells us, “Many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it” (John 12:42). If you’re a different person depending on who’s watching, you don’t have convictions, you just have opinions. 3. THINGS WE MIGHT DENY IF IT COSTS US SOMETHING TO BELIEVE THEM Jesus talked about people who are genuinely excited when they hear the good news, but he warned of the person who “has no root in himself” and so “endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matthew 13:20-21). It surprises many today to hear about individuals deconstructing their faith. We assume their enthusiasm reflected deeply held convictions, but often it didn’t. But the real test of a conviction is how it stands up to testing. Today, Christian beliefs in North America are being tested in ways that they haven’t been for a long time. It costs something to hold to biblical truth today and many are unprepared to pay the price. Jesus’ disciples faced the same challenges we do. At one point, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:66). When Jesus asked the twelve whether they wanted to turn back as well, Peter showed us the path to true conviction. He replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69). You build convictions by recognizing that the alternatives are counterfeits. Convictions are founded on “the words of eternal life.” And they form as you choose to follow “the Holy One of God” when other voices compete for your loyalty. True convictions take time, testing, and trust in Christ. May we pursue beliefs that will stand when the pressure is applied to them. In awe of Him, Paul