ME?
God wills to use people! Ordinary folks.This is Theresa and Veda. For years God has used them to spearhead a wonderful, full & delicious Boxing Day Christmas Meal for our neighbourhoods’ needy families. This past December a large & loving team prepared & served about 375 meals!
Moses. Esther. The little boy with the fish & rolls lunch.
The little boy Samuel repeatedly heard his name being called in the middle of the night. He thought it was his caregiving priest calling him, but it wasn’t; it was the Lord.
BIG THINGS HAPPEN IN SMALL GROUPS!
This is our Mini-Church. We are learning together. We care about each other.
KFC has “Original Recipe” fried chicken.
Small groups are “Original Recipe” Christianity / Church.
Acts 2:42 paints the picture of the Church when she was weeks or months old:
“And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
If you will plug into a Mini-Church you will find that it’s “finger-lickin’ good”!
Conviction
Pastor Earle Weech is the respected & beloved founding Pastor of the Calvary Bible Church.
He was a man of conviction.
A conviction is a belief rooted in Scripture.
Conviction is different than an opinion.
An opinion is merely a preference.
I wouldn’t necessarily cross the street for my preferences; but I would die for my convictions.
The conviction which Pastor Weech came to was that the New Testament teaches that once a person is saved, they are always saved. (John 10:27-30).
This was a particularly challenging & risky conviction for Pastor Weech to arrive at, because he was the successful pastor of a church that believed that persons can lose their salvation.
What was he to do, given his fresh conviction?
Based on his changed conviction, Pastor Weech did the courageous and the right thing of resigning that church!
He walked away rather than standing for something he no longer believed in based on his study of the Scriptures.
And this was how he was used mightily of God to found the Calvary Bible Church!
So it is with convictions: They can be both risky & destiny-shaping!
What are some of your convictions?
How about discussing them with your spouse and kids?
CHRISTMAS – GOD WITH US
God’s Care
This is a random week as found in my trusty Day-Timer.
I’m old-school. I have an iPhone but I prefer to use my Day-Timer to keep track of my appointments and deadlines.
I find it extremely encouraging that my God cared for me and for all of my contacts within every single commitment of that particular week!
God also cared for me in all of the unexpected situations of that week.
There was never a second when I was outside of God’s loving care.
So it is for you!
We may make ourselves too busy for God but our busyness will never weary God’s care for us.
Psalm 139:1-5 describes this kind of care by God.
WHO IT’S ALL ABOUT
I was driving this afternoon on Bay Street West. Of course, there were lots of tourist-visitors. One person’s t-shirt caught my eye. In bright neon letters it said: “It’s All About Me”.
If He is our Lord. Then He is our biggest Boss!
When we do say “no” to Jesus, we are “too big for our britches” and/or we have shrunk Him in our thinking.
Back in the New Testament days, John the Baptist gained a rather high profile; then the Lord Jesus appeared one day to be baptized and to start His public ministry.
On that occasion John immediately put himself in proper 2nd place to Christ the Lord.
He said: “He must increase and I must decrease.”
May we say and mean the same because it is not about us.
10:30 AM SUNDAYS
Zechariah 4:6B gives believers an important truth:
” … not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts”.
Each Lord’s Day morning at about 10:30 the Pastors meet in my office to pray for God the Holy Spirit to mightily move in the Worship Service exalting Christ & transforming Christ’s followers & calling the lost to repentance-faith.
This is not a ritual. This is a necessity.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ …”.
James 5:16B: ” … The effective prayer of the righteous man can accomplish much”.
When we pray, God works; when we fail to pray, we merely work.
I LOVE MY THIN WINDOWS
My office has thin window panes. I love it because I can hear what’s going on in the church parking lot.This morning I heard the singing voice of a very young child.
He was in enthusiastically singing “I love to tell the story of Jesus and his love”.
I clear example of a brand-new heart at a very young age.
Do you and I love to tell the story? When did we last do so?
What’s in our insides comes out to the outside.
” … be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord …”
WHAT TIME IS IT?
This is my grandfather Witherspoon’s watch. It is at least 50 years old.” … work out your salvation with fear and trembling (craftsmanship); for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (grace)”
TIC-TOC. TIC-TOC.
A TEAM
This is our church’s quality & fun on-site ministry team.We meet together every Tuesday morning for Bible study, prayer and administrative communication.
It is always one of the highlights of my week!
We all have different roles. Yet one shared ambition: Facilitating service to Christ among our brothers & sisters who make up the Incredible Body of Christ, to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 12:27 captures this:
“Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”
How about passing along encouragement to any of the members of this team when you see them next?
It is truly our pleasure to serve the King of Kings by serving you all!