Like A Rock
Last week I introduced a new construction project to you. The project was entitled Lets Build a Church. As I outlined that project I finished by listing seven things that we could do that would help build our church. This week I would like to expand on one of those seven points. Id like to talk about the first one which was:
Be willing to witness and let your life be a witness to others
Todays call to worship is all about building our lives on the rock of our salvation. That rock is Jesus Christ. He is described for us as the Corner Stone. We are also described as Living Stones built on Him. So if we are to follow the scriptural design for building our church and our individual Christian lives we must lay ourselves on the cornerstone that is Jesus Christ.
We must then be witnesses to the benefits of building on such a foundation. Now last week I talked about my poor construction abilities and how that dog house I tried to build ended up looking like any thing but a dog house. Well before I met Jesus my life kind of looked liked that dog house I had built.
My life was all wrong. My design was all haphazard. I had built my life using all kinds of different materials with no standard lengths or widths. My fasteners were all different too. There were all kinds of different nails and glues and hinges that I had used to try to keep my life together to resemble something strong and useful but in reality it was poorly constructed and looked a mess.
You see before I met Jesus I was like the man building his house on the sand. The sand would shift and so would I as I tried to keep my balance all while trying to build something solid out of my life. I had forgotten that we need to build our lives on the corner stone of our faith, Jesus Christ.
I would like to share with you today about how Jesus taught me to trust Him with the design and construction of my life since I obviously had made a mess of it. I would like to demonstrate this to you by exercising the first point I made last week about how to build a church by witnessing to you about the life changing power and soul saving love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is what is called a testimony. We all have heard and may have used that word before and we know it as a legal word used in courts of law.
Testimony means that the words spoken are true and reflect the facts correctly. It also means that the testimony can be challenged by cross-examination in order to disprove or clarify specific points or details. Well you now can be the judge and you will hear my testimony and you can cross-examine it and see if the truth that I speak holds up.
I now present myself as your witness to what Jesus Christ can do when a life is surrendered to him.
1 Peter 3:15-16
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
Scripture teaches us that we should always be ready to give the REASON for the HOPE that we have in Christ. Being ready is what being a Christian is all about for we do not know the day or the hour that Jesus will return but we wait in patient hope.
I will share with you why it is that I hope and now you will know the reason.
Early Background
I was born and raised in Wallaceburg to active Roman Catholic parents Ray and Janice Aarssen. I was the second of five children. We were a busy typically dysfunctional family for the 1960s era. Our parents made us sit in the front pew every Sunday and made us go to confession every Saturday. I think that was how they created their alone time.
In grade four I beat up a Nun
We had a split three-four class.
My younger brother was in my class that year.
In typical authoritarian style they felt no need to inform me.
My brother was ordered to take his books and everything out of the classroom.
I guess I snapped and I got into a tug of war with my brothers arms in front of the class. My brother broke away and returned to his seat but I was dragged into the hallway.
They had to call my big sister out of her class in order to get me to release my teacher. They wore those big crucifixes so it was easy to get a good hold.
I spent that summer in summer school and I was forced to repeat the grade. Understandable.
I was an Altar boy and choir member for many years.
I guess in a way that was my penance.
High School
Our community did not have a Catholic high school so I was off to public school.
In high school I became aware of the many Protestant young people.
I made many friends of various denominations.
My strongest group of friends was from the Christian Reformed Church.
I joined the young peoples group and began to learn for the first time about Jesus as a personal saviour.
The Cross and The Switchblade
When we got home we announced the news to our parents who told us we were already Christians and they passed it off as childish talk. You see we had been raised in the church and my parents assumed that was enough exposure to Jesus to make a person a Christian.
After high school I pursued my dream of being a police officer and went as far away as I could.
Community College
I fell out of fellowship with the Lord and backslid dramatically even though my parents had gone to the trouble of bordering me with an Irish Catholic family. I spent more time that year getting to know Irish whiskey instead of the Irish Catholic family I was staying with.
I completed community college and got a job on the local police service in Wallaceburg.
I met Fran when I was 23 and we were married 2 years later in the Catholic Church.
Her background was Jehovah Witness.
Mine was Catholic so we went with a Catholic wedding.
We attended the prescribed engaged and married encounters for the Catholic Church.
We were not good Catholics and rarely attended church.
I had an Uncle who kept trying to stir and direct my spiritual growth.
He did have a significant influence on my conscience.
Work Life
I was working with men who were less than honorable or faithful to their wives.
They were putting intense pressure on me to adopt their behavior.
I could not be unfaithful to my wife since I was still in love with her.
The guys at work ostracized me and my life became very difficult.
They went out of their way to make trouble for my wife and I..
They led me to believe things that were not true.
I became a threat to them since I would not join them in their sinful conduct.
My marriage began to fall apart after two years and by that time we had our first child, Audrey. Here I was with everything I had ever wanted. I had the wife I wanted, the job I wanted and now a daughter but we were always fighting.
I did not know where to go for help.
I sought pastoral counsel from my local Priest.
It just so happened that his name was also Mark and he was about the same age as me. He suggested I watch television since the Pope was visiting Canada at the time.
The Holy Father will give me the wisdom I needed.
I had no friends to go to and I was too embarrassed to go to family. I found the advice I was given to be more of an insult than instruction.
Heavens Gates Hells Flames.
At this time my wife had a Protestant friend who encouraged her to go to a play.
My wife went forward after the play at an altar call and began her born again Christian life. She began to read her bible around the house right in front of me which made me uncomfortable and curious.
My one time friends at work had lied to me about my wifes faithfulness and had worked me up into a kind of paranoia. I often accused her and fought with her about what they were telling me.
I began to wonder if she had met some religious lover of some type and I was caught up in confusion and doubt. God used that to get me to follow her to an evening church service at a Baptist Church she was attending.
That particular night the minister was reading from the book of Revelation. He was explaining how the world was going to end and how people were going to be left behind to face a terrible time of tribulation. I figured he was talking to me. I knew he was talking to me. The words he read cut me to the heart. I knew the world was going to end because mine was falling apart all around me.
That night as I lay in bed I remembered how to pray. I poured out my heart to God and asked His forgiveness. I recounted all my failures despite all the blessings I had come to know. Tears ran down my face and filled my ears as I lay on my back. A peace came over me that I had not felt before and I surrendered my heart to Jesus and promised God I would make something good of my life.
We began attending the Protestant Baptist Church Sundays and mid-week service too. I was not ready to abandon my years as a Catholic so I went back to the priest to explain my problem. This time I put the question to him plainly and asked him to explain just what we Catholics believed about Salvation, Grace and being Born Again.
He told me that we believed we are saved through the seven sacraments and through Jesus blood sacrifice and how it was necessary to offer Christ body and blood as a sacrifice at every mass. I then asked him a question about the thief on the cross beside Jesus. I asked him when did he receive the seven sacraments from the church? He looked puzzled and offered a hasty reply which I did not accept.
Finally the priest suggested that many Protestants were going to be in heaven too. This was big news to me since I was indoctrinated to believe only Catholics could be saved.
We debated for a short time and I found myself with more questions than I could answer. I decided then and there to learn all I could about the origins of the Catholic Church, its doctrine, history and authority over Christians.
I spent the next several months in the local library pouring over numerous books about Church history. I discovered much and then I went to a Christian book store and began to acquire my own library. Through personal study I learned a great deal about The Early Church. The Reformation and The Middle Ages I also purchased my own copies of Catholic teaching The Documents of Vatican II and Jewish history Josephus The Essential Writings as well as Protestant books like Foxes Book of Martyrs
I also read many others and now armed with knowledge I confronted my priest with facts not feelings. I was not a very good student as a young person but for some reason I took to the study of criminal law and the rules of evidence etc with a keen ability. I finished top in my class at Police College and discovered I had a good mind for comprehending the law.
It wasnt too much of a stretch to comprehend ecclesiastical law and church doctrine. I discovered I took to this like a duck to water. In my youthful zeal I confronted my local priest with my own version of Martin Luthers 95 Theses. In my version I argued against confession to a priest alone, transubstantiation, the need to receive all seven sacraments as a pathway to heaven and the cult of Mary. I did not nail it on his door I wanted to engage him in Christian Apologetics but he would not bite. He wished me good luck as a Protestant and Im sure was glad to be rid of me.
I left feeling vindicated and sure that I had defended the faith and may have convinced a young priest to do some of his own soul searching as he followed his Christian vocation.
My wife and I were baptized together at First Baptist Church Wallaceburg in August of 1985.
To my parents my wife and our children were Anathema! They cut us out of their lives as much as possible for about three years. When we did restore relations my mother would regularly baptize my two children according to Catholic custom whenever we asked them to take the kids for a weekend. This was a rare event at that time but my mother made the most of it. Now they ask the lone Protestant to pray at all family gatherings.
I grew in wisdom and knowledge of the Lord through many good Christian leaders at First Baptist Church Wallaceburg. I was extremely zealous for the Lord and was known to try and convert more than one prisoner over my police career. I joined the adult bible study group, the choir, the missions group and would later assume leadership roles in all of them as well as being a Deacon and youth group leader.
With my position as a community police officer I was invited to speak to young peoples retreats in the area, Sarnia and St. Thomas and Chatham etc. My wife and I went door to door in the worst neighborhoods of our community trying to grow the church. We took and led study courses like Navigators 2:7 which is a Discipleship training course combining personal memory verse study and group bible study. We ran the Young Peoples group for several years.
I even got rid of my television for about 2 years but bought a new one in order to watch the First Gulf War of 1987-88. I was sure the rapture was imminent at that time and I didnt want to miss seeing it played out.
We engaged and invited the local Jehovah Witness to our home and presented the gospel to them. Whenever they would work our neighborhood we would willingly rescue the neighbors by extending an invitation to them. They got more than they bargained for.
Many Christian have been responsible for our continued growth and service to the Lord over the years. Through their love, teaching and example we are developing into mature grounded Christians. Our family has served as a Foster Family to over 80 of Chatham-Kents children. We had to stop as a result of a serious car accident that limits my wifes physical abilities to care for children on a 24/ 7 basis.
I have continued to serve at Faith Baptist as a Deacon, Adult Sunday School Teacher, Missions Leader and Choir member as well as pulpit supply. My wife and I recently became involved with a Canadian Christian Mission called Kids Alive. Last year we traveled on our first foreign mission trip to Zambia, Africa to aid children who are victims of the aids epidemic.
We rejoice in the Lord at His goodness and blessing to meet these great needs and more. Our lives have been forever changed as a result of the experience.
1 Peter 2:9-12
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
