Author: Admin

“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” Hosea 3:6

I remember a video I once saw of a man dumping gasoline on a giant pile of wood and garbage. He was standing on top of the pile, which must have been over 8 feet high, emptying a whole jerry can of gas on to it. The man lit a piece of cardboard and tossed it onto the pile. What happens next is utter chaos. As the flaming box hit the pile there was a tremendous explosion. Wood and debris flew everywhere, and you briefly see the man flung backward with wood hitting him.

When I see a video like that, or hear a similar story, I’m reminded by this verse from Hosea. If the man had known that gasoline (both the liquid and the vapours) is explosive, not just flammable, he would have known better than to douse the wood with gas. When the flame hit the wood, all of the vapours that had settled down into the pile exploded. He had created a bomb, and it went off.  A lack of knowledge almost cost him his life.

In Hosea’s time, the people of Israel had forgotten about God and what He had instructed them to do. Instead of seeking and following Him they were trying to do things their own way. Sometimes it seemed as if things were working, and for a time they were prosperous and safe, but that would only last a short time. All too soon they were overrun and destroyed.

The same can be said for our time and generation. Many people don’t know who Jesus is. They follow their own heart, and chase after the gods of this age. They decide to put themselves first before anything else. But just like the man dumping gasoline on a pile of wood discovered, what you don’t know can hurt you.

This Sunday we’ll be looking at Hosea 3-4 at our weekly gathering. We meet on Sunday at 4pm at Bethel church (70 William St. S). Hope to see you there.

Blessings, Pastor Mike

How much would you pay to have something of yours returned to you? Perhaps you lost your bike or cell phone — what’s it worth to you? Or maybe it’s something of sentimental significance such as a wedding ring or a family heirloom. How much would you pay to get it back? How about a pet? How about a child, or your spouse, or another family member? The material things that we lose we can likely get by without — it is just stuff after all, and those items can be replaced. But something with emotional significance and attachments cannot be replaced. They are unique, one of a kind, special. This is why people will spend extraordinary amounts of time, energy, and resources to make sure these people, or items, are kept safe and secure. We know they’re irreplaceable.

Hosea demonstrates this principal clearly. Even though his wife has cheated on him and left him, he still loves her and finds her, and pays for her release so that they can be together once again.  He does this as a living example of how God acts towards Israel, for just as Hosea’s wife Gomer cheated on him and left him, so too had Israel cheated on God and left Him for others. But God, in His love and mercy, shows grace towards Israel and welcomes them back even though they don’t deserve it. This act by God for Israel is a foreshadowing of how He will through Jesus’ sacrifice buy back all those who trust and put their faith in Jesus. “[We] are not [our] own, for [we] were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). We don’t deserve forgiveness or grace, nor can we earn it — it is something that God gives us freely. Just as Hosea bought back Gomer and restored their relationship, God buys us back and makes us a part of His family. All we need to do is accept this free gift by believing in Jesus and what He has done.

This Sunday we’re going to look at Hosea 2 and 3, and in response we’re going to celebrate communion (the Lord’s table). If you’ve never taken communion with us before, it is open and available to everyone who has accepted and believed in Jesus as their Saviour, Lord, and King. We will gather at our regular time of 4pm on Sunday. Hope to see you there.

Blessings, Pastor Mike

No one likes to be punished. And no punishment is enjoyable at the time. When we are being punished our first instinct is usually denial and self-righteous indignation. We try to justify our actions, describe ourselves as the victim, and make it seem like there was no choice for us but to act out in a way that went against the law. It doesn’t matter if we were speeding; our schedule and priorities were more important than everyone else’s at that time! Because there was no choice for us but to act the way we did, there’s no reason why we need to be punished. Sound familiar? This is the line of thinking and way of acting for most people when they go against God. We believe that our circumstances are such that we need to override God’s law — we place ourselves in His position. This is a dangerous place to be!

The author of Hebrews says as he quotes from Proverbs 3:11-12, “ . . . the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Later in that same in that same chapter that “ . . . God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:10b-11). Discipline, or punishment, isn’t something God does on a whim, or because He wants to see us squirm. His discipline is so that we will grow in our righteousness and become more like Jesus. It is not arbitrary, but purposeful.  

Over the next few weeks we’re going to look at the book of Hosea in the Old Testament, a book about God’s punishment of Israel. It is hard to read at times as it is mainly written as poetry and uses a lot of symbolic and figurative language. It is also set in history and speaks to events that were happening in Israel over 700 years before the time of Christ. But it still is relevant to us today, and speaks to what we as the Christian church in North America are currently going through, and it also speaks personally to each one of us. I know a lot of questions will be raised as we study it which is why we’ll also be having a bible study that happens alongside this series. If you’d like to be a part of that, please let us know. We’ll be meeting every other Thursday evening beginning on January 17th.
Hope you have a wonderful week, and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday at our gathering at 4pm.

Pastor Mike

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  
Love never fails.

This passage from 1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings, as part of the encouragement to the couple being married on how they should act towards each other in their relationship. It is a good and lofty goal, but if we’re honest with ourselves, is unattainable. We cannot do this.

By now you might be asking yourself, “This is Christmas, and this is now the fourth week of advent. What does this passage have to do with the birth of Jesus?” The answer is: everything!  

Jesus, the Son of God, is love. He perfectly demonstrates God’s love to us. He is love come to us, to save us, redeem us, and give us a new life full of His love. What I’d like you to do now is reread the passage above, but everywhere you see the word “love” (or it is implied) replace it with “Jesus”. That is the message of Christmas — God’s love has come to us because we could not get to Him.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTOYekVnDsg — one of my favourite Christmas songs!)

This Sunday we will be gathering at our regular time of 4pm, but it will be a special Christmas service. Hope you can join us!

Blessings, Pastor Mike

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

This is one of the most popular and familiar carols sung around Christmas. It is full of hope, and expectation, and, naturally, joy! But what are we to be joyful about? If we look around in our society we see lots of brokenness, pain, frustration and sorrow. We see families falling apart, jobs lost, sickness and sadness. Where is the joy?

It is true that if we look to our world we have a hard time finding joy, and that’s why we need to look outside of creation. Everything within creation has been frustrated by sin and brokenness (read Romans 1 to get the full effect). Even those things that are supposed to bring us joy quite often let us down.  

But let me give you some good news about joy! Jesus came into the world, into creation, to fix what is broken and restore what’s been lost. He came to bring us joy, and joy in increasing measure. What I mean by that is that the more you trust in Him the more joy you’ll have! It doesn’t mean that all your problems will suddenly disappear. In fact, you may have new problems because you are following Him more closely. What it means is that you will see the problems and trials that you’re facing for what they really are — momentary and short lived. When our hope and satisfaction come from Jesus we will find that our joy is magnified (See Philippians 4:11-13).

So this Christmas, don’t let your joy only come from stuff, or events, or even relationships. Focus first on Jesus, the giver of every good gift — give Him thanks for blessing you — and recognize that through Him, only through Him, can we have true, lasting and eternal joy!

Pastor Mike

The Hebrew word for peace is ‘shalom’ but it means much more than what our english word means. Peace for us in english is simply the absence of war or conflict, but most of us know that just because there is no outward fighting or hostilities doesn’t necessarily mean that isn’t any animosity or that relationships are repaired. Even if an argument is over, and peace has returned, there can still be tension and an uneasiness. There might be peace, but there isn’t shalom.

The word shalom means that not only is there an absence of fighting, but there is also a working together to restore what was broken. It is repairing damaged relationships, making good on payments for what was broken or lost, and rebuilding what was torn down.  

When we understand peace this way it should change the way we see Jesus. Yes, He is the Prince of Peace (see the prophecy in Isaiah 9:2-7), the One who has come to make peace between us and God, but He doesn’t just end the fighting between us and God (see Romans 5:8), He begins to restore the broken relationship that we have with God. More than that, He pays for our sins, our debt, through His sacrificial death which means we’re no longer bound by sin (read through Ephesians 2). And as the Prince of Peace His reign will bring a full restoration of creation, rebuilding everything to the way it’s supposed to be. This has already begun, but we’re not all the way there just yet.  

Once we’ve accepted Jesus’ offer of peace, we are then called to become peace makers (see Matthew 5:9), going out in His name bringing restoration and peace. We won’t just stop fighting, we’ll start repairing and rebuilding and restoring, and doing all this in Jesus’ name and for His glory!

Blessings, Pastor Mike

Hope, Peace, Joy, Love 

This Sunday marks the beginning of the Christmas season (Advent) in the church, not Black Friday, or the Santa Clause parade. We take the four Sundays leading up to Christmas to prepare and think about what it meant for Jesus to come to us, and what that means for us now.
Hope, or faith, is the act of looking forward to something that hasn’t happened just yet. It is a longing over an unanswered question, or something unfulfilled. My kids often hope for a snow day around this time of year, while I long for the longer days and warmer weather of Spring (I know, I know, winter hasn’t even started yet and already I’m looking for it be over!). We can also hope for loved ones to return, a new job to come through for us, or for someone to get better. But in every case we’re hoping and longing for  something better. We are unsatisfied, incomplete, and looking to be whole.

In the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible that tells the story of the people of Israel, they were looking and hoping for a Messiah, someone to come and rescue them and lead them to freedom. They wanted a mighty king to come and lead them in battle to defeat their enemies and set them free from oppression. And God did promise them that a Messiah would come, but He wouldn’t be anything like what they were hoping for or expecting.  

This is often the case for us. We hope for an answer to our problems, and think that it will turn out like we planned, but often it doesn’t. Does this mean that God doesn’t hear us, or want what’s best for us? Not at all. God’s plan for us is perfect, and will come about at the perfect time, but we need to be patient, keep on hoping and looking for God to act. The Jewish people were hoping for a strong warrior king as their Messiah, but instead got a helpless baby born to outsiders. He may not have been what they were hoping for, but He was exactly what they needed. And He still is for us today.

Blessings, Pastor Mike

Quiet, faithful obedience. It’s an incredibly difficult thing for us to do. If we’re honest, it feels good to be recognized and encouraged for a work that we’ve done. We like to be noticed, and for people to tell us, “Good job! Well done!” It’s also difficult to continue to do the work even after the initial fanfare is over, when something is no longer new and exciting, but is simply a task that needs to be completed. Quite often, many tasks are only noticed when they’re left undone!

Quiet, faithful obedience is generally what we are called to as followers of Christ. To serve God when no one’s watching or when there’s no promise of a reward is our standard (look at Matthew 6). To continue on, even in the face of adversity or frustration, because that is what we are called to do. Jesus gives us this example during the sham of a trial he endured (Mark 14:53-15:15). He suffered insults and injury because He knew that was what He was called to do. He could have called down legions of angels to fight for Him (John 18:36), but He knew that it wasn’t the way to accomplish what God had planned. Quiet, faithful obedience is what He was called to, and it’s what He offered back to God.

What is God calling you to do? In what ways can you demonstrate your love and faithfulness to Him? It won’t always be easy, and you likely won’t be recognized for all that you do, but if it’s what you’re called to do then know this: Jesus is with you, and will stand alongside you during those quiet, faithful moments of obedience to Him. Don’t give up. Persevere. And look to Him for your strength and encouragement.

Our gathering is at the regular time this Sunday at 4pm. Hope to see you there.

Blessings,

Pastor Mike

I think if we’re honest with ourselves there’s something in our life that we’d rather not have to think about or do, something that weighs us down and causes us anxiety. Perhaps it’s a painful conversation that you know you need to have with a loved one. Maybe you need to make a lifestyle change and it’s scaring you. Or maybe you need to leave your current, comfortable job and try something new, something unknown and untried. Whatever it is, it has you terrified. You don’t know exactly how things are going to work out.

Let me tell you, you’re not alone. There are people right now going through the same thing you are, and there’s many more who have gone before you. Moreover, we know Jesus also struggled with these same feelings and anxious thoughts. You are not alone!

On the night before Jesus was crucified (actually, it was only a few hours before He died), Jesus went and prayed. He called out to God in agonizing fashion. The Gospel of Luke says that Jesus was in such anguish that He was sweating blood (Luke 22:44) as He asked God to take the task from Him. But each time He ended with the phrase, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” It’s a recognition that God is in control, that He knows the beginning from the end and all points in between, and He knows what’s best. It is an admission of complete and utter dependence upon Him.

Are you there yet? I know I still have a ways to go! But I do know this: as I call out to God, He hears me. He knows what I’m going through. Jesus understands and empathizes because He too has suffered. And it’s because of His sufferings that I’m able, that we are able, to call out to God. Jesus did what we can not do — He made a way for us to be with God. He was in anguish; He called out to God and sweat blood; He was beaten and crucified; but He rose from the dead making a way for us to go from death to life! No matter what you are facing, God is with you, and His strength is all you need, it is more than enough!

Pastor Mike