Perspectives by Rev. Duncan Perry

It is traditional at year’s end that organizations look back on its accomplishments. I would like to review my Conservative Government’s record during the past 12 months. We were given a majority government to create jobs and opportunities for Canadians, to support and protect Canadian families, and to put Canada First. 

I am proud to say we have concluded our most productive year with a record 40 bills being passed – delivering real results for Canadians. We made huge progress on bills that will meet our Throne Speech commitments. 

These include bills that: 

• combat harmful online harassment and exploitation;

• protect Canadians from unsafe drugs;

• support injured veterans with priority consideration for public service jobs;

• stand up for victims of crime;

• grant greater decision-making powers to the Northwest Territories; and

• make our prisons safer for our correctional officers.

This Parliament has also been marked by unprecedented success on the part of individual Members of Parliament, who advanced changes important to their constituents. I am proud to report that my colleagues and I have passed a record total of 19 Private Members’ Bills that have become law. As a matter of fact, since we formed government in 2006, a record 39 substantive Private Members’ Bills have received Royal Assent. 

This year we have delivered real results for Canadians by strengthening our economy, creating jobs and supporting families. We have created over 1 million net new jobs since the depth of the recession. We also completed the Canada-Europe Free Trade Agreement which will result in $12 billion in trade and 80,000 new jobs.

Through a productive and hard-working sitting of the House of Commons, we have delivered real results by strengthening our economy, creating jobs and supporting families. Through historic breakthroughs such as the Canada-EU Free Trade deal, by standing firm with our allies around the globe, and by protecting and supporting families here at home, our Government sent a strong signal this year, to the rest of the world, that Canada will be vigorous in its pursuit of new policies and ideas in the service of Canadians. 

Have a very Happy New Year.

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The Ongoing Gift

The Christmas gifts have been unwrapped. We have eaten the turkey, potatoes, dressing and pie. We have watched as a child in our church placed baby Jesus in the manager. We have decorated our homes with strings of lights, proclaiming that Jesus, the light of the world, has come, that darkness can never again be as black.

In a few days, Christmas 2012, will be behind us. Eventually, all the leftover food will be gone. We will now sing Epiphany hymns. 

We will take down the Christmas tree and put away the beautiful ornaments.

When we put away the snowmen, angels, bells and nativity sets, let us not put away the hope, peace, joy and love that comes down at Christmas.

May we put Christ at the centre of our days–may we remember that God’s ongoing gift to humankind is life.

God’s greatest gift to us was a child, a child who assures us of eternal life in His arms.

Jesus opened the eyes and minds of men and women to the great possibilities which lie within the realm of personhood.

Jesus loves us and asks us to walk in His paths of mercy, justice, caring and concern.

We are called to minister to others in a spirit of compassion and kindness–we’re to be Christ’s faithful and devoted disciples.

May the magic of the holiday season touch you, and may the New Year bring you peace.

Always remember that Jesus taught the value of life,the wonder and beauty of life, the joy of caring for each other.

This is the true gift of Christmas, and has nothing to do with purchases or wrapping.

It belongs to all of us. Amen.

Rev. Janet Evans, Iroquois United Church

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"Have Faith in God"Jesus the Christ

In the gospel of Mark (11:22) Jesus commands His disciples to “Have faith in God.” The God Jesus is referring to is the God who reveals Himself in nature (Romans 1:20) and the Bible, and was with them in Christ.

To have faith in God as Jesus is commanding, is to have a certain kind of relationship with God that determines your lifestyle. (2 Corinthians 5:9; Hebrews 10:38) It is this relational lifestyle that makes all the difference between the way the those who have faith in God live, and the way those who do not have faith in God live. 

The way we live is always influenced and defined by the relationships we have (or do not have), because the human creature is created to live in community. Before sin God was an appreciated and loved participant in the human community. 

The gospel calls us back to the love and appreciation of the God who is, and His defining presence in our lives; it calls us back to the joy of being in community with God.

The difference between the life of a believer and the life of an unbeliever, is determined by the actuality of having faith in God, or not. 

As such, when faith in God is possessed it affects every aspect of the life of the possessor, beginning with ones primary, or governing, reason for living; i.e. that reason for living to which all other reasons within one’s life must be subordinate. (as a meditation, read Ecclesiastes 12:13, then read the whole short book of Ecclesiastes)

We are not here only addressing God’s reason for your life, but also that reason for living that you assign to your life as a free moral agent. 

The primary reason for living that attends the actuality of having faith in God may be comprehended in the confession of 2 Corinthians 5:l4-15. Consider this text in confessional form: “For the love of Christ compels me, because I judge thus: that if One died for me, then I died; and He died for me, that I who live should live no longer for myself, but for Him who died for me and rose again.

This scripture is teaching the believer how to think about the meaning and course of his own life; and it is the reciprocated love of Christ (1 John 4:19), not human logic, that leads the rationality of this thinking. 

In response to the love Jesus has demonstrated toward us, our love for Jesus should result in the reasoning and conclusion presented in this bible verse; if we actually love Jesus this will make sense to us. 

As Christians Divinely endowed with the God kind of love (Romans 5:5), we reason from our love, not to it; as concerns both God and man. This is contained in Jesus’ two Great Commandments. (Matt 22:37-40)  

In the greatest commandment we are told to love God with the totality of our “heart,” “soul” and “mind.” (notice that the word “all” is applied severally to each faculty of loving) 

The question we are challenged with is “do I express my love for God in all my affections, all my choices, my way of thinking about things, how I feel about things, and all that I enjoy in living?”

Again, the love that we are to reason from is the God kind of love as revealed and defined in scripture. The God kind of love is communicated to the Christian by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5); it is not natural human love that disrespects holiness and justice, and is selfish and self serving. 

The kind of thinking, and lifestyle, compelled by the God kind of love, is a purpose of Christ’s vicarious death. May this purpose be fulfilled in each one of us and the Christian community as a whole, and may it be the testimony to the world that our Lord desires. (John 13:35)

Rev. George T. Frey, 

Faith Christian Center 

Morrisburg

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