How Devoted Am I? (By Nancy Varga, Family Ministries Director)

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  Acts 2:42 (NIV)

 I am a follower of Jesus and I want that to be evident in all that I do particularly in my role as a Mom and Grandma.  I know that my actions speak louder than my words and what I model matters.  Going to a church building on Sunday mornings to sing songs of worship and hear God’s word taught and to connect with other believers has been a regular part of our family’s life for many years. Certainly not without its challenges when our kids were small and when they were teenagers and other things fought for our time.

 Then the pandemic came and attending church in person suddenly became a luxury.  At first, watching church from home was a little bit refreshing to view it from our couch in our pajamas and at a later time on Sundays. For us as a family, it was restoring to be able to worship all together.

 Then the days kept moving forward and Covid was still with us and a new regular routine fell into place in an abnormal time.  Unfortunately, the new routine took some liberties.

We told ourselves, church was accessible anytime, so we would watch it later.

We told ourselves we could watch it separately and we’d talk about it together later. 

We told ourselves we could watch it while we were doing another task and reflect on it later. 

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  Acts 2:42 (NIV)

 Passively watching a video was no longer devotion to teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. Admittedly, this is my story and maybe doesn’t properly reflect yours.

Maybe your kids are young and they are playing around your feet and it’s hard to focus.

Maybe the technology is a burden and hasn’t been available to you or you’re tired of it.

Maybe you simply miss the fellowship and the breaking of bread together.

Maybe you are doing it alone in a house full of people.

Maybe it’s hard to feel connected in prayer in a video.

Maybe you miss singing and hearing the voices around you.  

This is hard.

 Truthfully, I’m writing this blog for myself as a way to work through how to make my actions reflect what I believe. To make sure my life models what is true.

“He (Jesus) went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.” Luke 4:16 (NIV)

The Scripture says, it was Jesus' custom—his regular practice—to go to church. If Jesus made it a priority, shouldn't we, as his followers, do so also? Granted, church looks and feels different than we are used to after an entire year of this. Or maybe church in any capacity is brand new to you and you’re not sure what to do with church online.

 How do we experience church in a way that is meaningful?  How do we model devotion to Bible teaching, to fellowship with other believers, to communion and to prayer? The Sunday morning worship video is a good start but it doesn’t need to end there.

 Tips for ‘doing’ church:

• Try to watch the service in the same place and at the same time each week. Have a routine you follow before the service starts.

• Share the experience with someone and ask questions.  It could be the people you live with, or join the Zoom call at 11:45am on Sundays, or connect with a friend at another time.

• Stand and sing and dance to a worship song together.

• Pray. If you’re with other people, pray out loud together.

• Reach out to others and see how they are doing. Don’t wait for them to reach out to you. 

• Ask about any needs in your church that your family could help with.

Tips for ‘doing’ church with children

• Make a worship bin with special toys (magna tiles, legos, etc.), art materials, Children’s Bible, books that you only get out during worship.

• Give your children instruments, scarves, or blankets to wave around during the worship songs and sing and dance around with them.

• Help them look up the scripture passage in their Bible.

• Use a sermon notes sheet. (www.amberleachurch.ca)

• Encourage your child to draw or create a piece of art in response to the sermon that they can send to a grandparent or prayer champion.

• Find parent encouragement, great family conversation starters and faith activities on our website with regularly updated ideas and links.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.”  Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)

We are not alone in this. Let us encourage each other as we learn to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer in this new normal.

www.amberleachurch.ca
familyministries@amberleachurch.ca

There is hope!

On Sunday we concluded a two part sermon series on Love: An Extraordinary Kind of Love.  Over two weeks we looked at the story of Jesus’ dear friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

This story tells of a time when Jesus grieved. There are so many facets to the story of Lazarus. Jesus knew him — this wasn’t just someone who pursued Him in a crowd or heard of His miracles. This was a friend Jesus spent time with. We know Jesus loved everyone, but the Bible specifically says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). 

Jesus had dinner with Lazarus. Jesus even found Himself in the middle of sister drama with Martha and Mary. He knew this family, and they knew Him. Personally.

That was one of the many reasons why the death of Lazarus was such a shock. It was hard to understand why.

We all know how the story ends — Lazarus didn’t stay dead long. Jesus displayed what He proclaimed: He is the resurrection and the life.

But in the middle, between death and life, something else happened. “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). This is scripture’s shortest verse—and one of its most profound. Imagine the Son of God, who would defeat death forever, weeping with mourners at the grave of the man he was about to resurrect.

This begs the question … why? Jesus knew Lazarus would live again. Why weep? He could have started with “Lazarus, come out!” but He chose to shed tears with Mary and Martha instead.

Why? Because God is present.  God is there in the midst of our grieving and grieves with us in our pain. It is all about this Extraordinary Kind of Love that God has for humanity — for you and me.

Ash Wednesday (Feb 17th) marks the beginning of the Lenten season. Lent (find out more here) is a time that invites us to grieve as Jesus grieved, and to glory as he gloried—in the death of death. There is HOPE!

You are Loved!

An Extraordinary Kind of Love_part 2

This Sunday is Valentine’s Day! 

Valentine’s Day gets a lot of hype in our consumerist society doesn’t it? Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the retailers are not missing a beat to entice you to make the perfect online purchase.

Do you know the origin of Valentine’s Day?  One source cited that there was a priest by the name of Valentine who lived in Rome about 250 AD.  At that time, Rome was ruled by Emperor Claudius II who desired a big army but found many men just wouldn’t volunteer– they did not want to leave their wives and girlfriends.  This infuriated Claudius II, so he got this crazy idea that if men were not married, they would join his army.  Claudius II decided not to allow any more marriages. 

Young people thought his new law was cruel. Valentine thought it was ridiculous!  One of his favorite jobs as a priest was to marry people.

Well after Emperor Claudius II passed his law, Valentine kept on performing marriage ceremonies – but secretly.  

He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.  One night, he did hear footsteps.  The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught.  He was thrown in jail and told that his punishment was death.  

And do you know what happened?  

Many young people came to the jail to visit him.  They threw flowers and notes up to his window.  They wanted him to know that they, too, believed in love.  One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard.  Her father allowed her to visit him in his cell where they often sat and talked for hours.   On the day he was to die, he left her a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty.  He signed it, "Love from your Valentine." That note started the custom of exchanging love notes on Valentine's Day.  It was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 A.D.  Now, every year on this day, people remember and think about love and friendship.

“Love” and “friendship” are huge themes in the Word of God.   For instance 1 John 3:18 says: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”   We are told that our love must be true love and that we should show that love by what we do. 

Our words have to match our actions if we really mean them.  St. Valentine backed up his belief with action.  He continued to perform marriage ceremonies even though he knew he could die for doing it.   As we know, St. Valentine’s actions were not so unique. God showed His extravagant love for us first.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)

God did this for you and for me – before we even knew that God existed.  God gave us the greatest “Valentine’s Day” gift ever given!   

But how do we show our love for God? 

The Bible is clear that God calls us to love others as Jesus loves us.  We can say that we love others – but what does it look like?  And does it only happen once a year on Valentine’s Day.  I don’t think so.  

It means that in our daily, everyday lives we need to treat people the way we want to be treated.  With love.  I suppose what I am trying to say is that actions sometimes do speak louder than words!   

So, on Valentine’s Day, remember that you have already been given the greatest Valentine’s gift of all. And as a response to God’s extraordinary love let us love others just as God loves us!