Faith after the Fire...

1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Yesterday a community in southern Manitoba experienced tragedy when a horrific fire passed through the small town of Vita. With strong south winds blowing, a grass fire quickly moved into the town forcing the entire town to be evacuated on very short notice. Four houses burned down as well as a bridge on the highway leading into the town of Vita. What caught my attention has been the faith of one particular family who lost everything and escaped with just the clothes on their backs. Their names are Jacob and Margaretha Marten. Mrs Marten was interviewed by both CBC radio and also by the Winnipeg Free Press.


This is what's left of the Marten's home ( picture from Winnipeg Free Press)

 Through this tragedy, Margaretha Marten is sharing her faith and being a shining witness for the Lord. Here is what the Winnipeg Free Press reported :

"We don’t turn from the Lord now," said Margaretha Marten. "We are safe and we don’t question His ways."

She and her husband, Jacob, returned to Vita this morning to see the charred aftermath of a wild fire that swept thourgh the edge of town on Tuesday afternoon.

While they have their faith, they no longer have material possessions.
When firefighters pounded on their door at 12:50 p.m. Tuesday, and warned that a raging fire was only minutes away, they fled with only the clothes on their backs.
This morning, Jacob peered into the smoldering ruins, trying to see a metal strongbox that held the couple's personal papers, including insurance policy on the house that had an estimated value of $125,000.
The couple said it's too early to say if they will continue to live in Vita. For now, they are being surrounded by the loving support of their seven grown children, several of whom inspected the rubble with their parents, and their church family at Sommerfeld Mennonite Church in New Bothwell.

This reminds me of the importance of becoming grounded solidly in faith in the Lord Jesus before hard times come into our livess. Then if and when tragedy strikes in our lives, we can stand strong like the Martens are doing, trusting in the Lord regardless of our circumstances.  We do not need to wonder if God is good or if He has forgotten us or how we will carry on. Through faith in the Lord Jesus, we can be confident and have assurance that  - Yes, God is good, and He will never forget about us and He never leaves those who trust in Him.
Hebrews 3:5-6 for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Matthew 28:20   lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Sermon Review - Friendship..

Sunday August 19, 2012 - Sermon Review - Friendships

The service began with singing several songs which included  "To the River, I am going, bringing sins I cannot bear" and also the song "Great is Thy Faithfulness".
This was followed by a children's feature encouraging children to pray when they wake up at night.
The focus of the service today was worshipping in Relationships using Hosea 12:6 as the basis for the message. Pastor Ben was speaking today and he started out by repeating the definition of  worship as our reponse to who God for who He is and all that He has done for us.
Hosea 12:6 says Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually. That is from the King James Bible.
Pastor Ben used the NIV version of Hosea 12:6 and it reads a bit different there - But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always
Here is what Pastor Ben said-
Turn back to God, Maintain Love and Justice.
Isaiah and Hosea were contemporaries and both warned that God was not pleased with how worship was being given. God detested the worship since the people had abandoned love and justice
Cling as a kitten clings - hang on to love and justice
Bring love into justice
Love and justice is about right living
Cling to both love and justice

Becoming Practical
Cling and hold fast to love
Love is fragile and can seem to disappear
Love is to risk ourselves - to let people in to see what we are thinking and feeling
Love is a risk and we can get hurt - our heart could get broken
The alternative to risking love is to build safety walls around ourselves and we end up alone
Many adults have no friends
We need to allow people to be vulnerable with us.
There is more to people than we can see on the outside
We need to encourage people to open up in our friendships, and allow them to be different
Allow people to share their opposing views in our friendships
Ask people questions
Allow them to change to become closer to the Lord.
Draw Closer to God
God wants to change us to the image of Christ.
Love is not about power

1Corinthians 13: 4-7
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
⁵ Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
⁶ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
⁷ Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

The service ended with singing.

Sunday Sermon Review - Building relationship with God..

Sunday Sermon Review July 1, 2012
 (from my home church that I attend regularly)

Psalm 146:1-2 Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.  While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

The service began with the worship leader reading from Psalm 145 and some congregational singing including the song " Blessed be Your Name" and "Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine".

Psalm 145:17-19 says
 The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

We had a guest speaker today by the name of Niko Engbrecht. He is an immigrant from Germany, come to Canada. Mr Engbrecht believes God is calling him to preaching so our church gave him a chance to explore that gift. Today was the first time in his life that he preached.

Mr Niko Engbrecht began by saying when he was in school in Germany, he was required to study the English language and at that time he hadn't felt it was important or that he would ever use the English language. But now he could see that it was a tool God was using to prepare him for life in Canada. He said he had said in years gone by that he would never preach or teach but now suggested it is wise to never say never because you don't know what God has planned for you ahead.
Mr Engbrecht chose 1 Timothy 4:13 for his text: Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
He said he prefers the KJV as it is the more accurate translation when compared with the Greek. The NIV translates the word exhortation as preaching whereas the KJV uses the word exhortation.

Who is Timothy?
His father was a Greek, mother was Jewish, he grew up with the Scriptures and was a student of Paul.

Three Tools to build Relationship with God

1) Give attendance to Reading: - We are not reading our Bibles enough. The Old Testament commanded to give 10% as a tithe, and the New Testament teaches to give our everything to God. Mr Engbrecht suggested if we have an average of 112 waking hours per week- are we willing to give God 10% of those hours for praying, reading Scriptures and service. That would be at least 11 hours per week.
Let us not be lukewarm in our relationship with Christ as the church in  Laodicea.

  Revelation 3:14-16 
¹⁴ And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
 ¹⁵ I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
¹⁶ So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Jesus doesn't want lukewarm. He wants cold or hot. Jesus left the glory of Heaven to die for us, the least we can do is to give Jesus top priority in our lives.
Read and study the Bible seriously everyday. Meet and socialize with God!

2) Give attendance to Exhortation:
As Christians, we represent Christ on this earth. If we involve ourselves in unChristlike behavior ( in speech, dress, lifestyle etc.) , we are misrepresenting Christ and the Bible.
So we need to exhort one another to live righteously. If we see fellow Christians living in sin and we do not warn them, we stand accountable to God as partakers of their actions. We need to give warning to the wicked, with Bible back-up to what we are saying. And we also accept exhortation from fellow believers.

1 Peter 3:10-11:  For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
  Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

3) Give attendance to Doctrine:
Mark 16:15 - And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Tell the good news to as many as you can wherever you are! We are to know the Scriptures and always be ready to give a word of testimony.

Satan likes to blind us. When we recognize our sin we need to repent. What is repentance?
Realize you have sinned.
Jesus died on the cross, shed his blood for your sin.
Change from within your heart, and do not repeat the sin.

Mr Niko Engbrecht ended the service with an altar call to salvation saying that we know we will all die. None of us know when we will die or if we even have a week left. God is not willing that anyone perish but that all come to repentance.

Revelation 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

The service ended with congregational singing - "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms"