Celebrating faithfulness!

This weekend marks Amberlea Church’s 40th Anniversary Kick off.  It will be a year of celebrating this amazing God-filled; God-led church in the Amberlea community.

As the 40th anniversary Committee meet over the past serval we wanted to ground the celebrations in Scripture.  Colossians 2:7 became that verse:

Being rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

This verse describes who we are and who we want to be as a church. Rooted, built up, strengthened and thankful! But this is only part of the verse.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.  Colossians 2: 6-7

Paul is encouraging us to not just begin our walk with Christ but continue to grow in Him. And that is what we aim to do at Amberlea.

Brian and I have been married for 37 years in December and I still remember the day that Brian proposed to me. I I get this picture when I read these verses of what if it would have looked like he got down on one knee and he said, “Mona will you marry me?”  I say,  “yes” and there's this excitement, we hug, it's beautiful and then I walk away because that was the moment and that's it.

The truth is that sometimes what happens to us as Christians we start our relationship with God by accepting God and saying God I surrender to you, I believe in what Jesus did for me but it's almost like we stop there.

Accepting Jesus into our lives is opening a door to the rest of our relationship with Jesus and so the same is true here in verse 6.

It says we accept but we must continue to follow Him. So the question is how do we follow Him?

Paul is very clear in this passage that’s what I love about this scripture is it's very clear what we should do.

So I want to give you four things to describe how we need to grow in our relationship with God.

1. Be firmly rooted. We should be firmly rooted. We have a huge maple tree in our backyard… and because of that I find little maple trees trying to take root all throughout the garden, and lawn. If I get them early enough they are easy to pull out but if I don’t catch them early and those roots get a chance to grow and spread out it’s hard to pull them out.

As Christians we need to have the attitude that we will not be moved no matter what the world is saying around us.

We will not be moved. We will be fully rooted in the Word of God, so when the storms come those roots anchor us and keep us

1. We need to have our lives built up on Him. Jesus is the foundation. The foundation is the most critical part of the building. A building can only go as high as the foundation can support and so building on our life on Christ will ensure that he will support the rest of our life our marriage our friendships our careers all those things are based on what we put our foundation on and hopefully it's Jesus Christ.

Third,

1. Be strengthened in the faith you were taught. Look at the second half of verse seven, it says then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught. I did not grow up in a Christian home, but as a child in public school we would recite the Lord’s Prayer. Everyday… and before long the words I said by route were engrained so that  when I was in the middle of a difficult time in life — that prayer, God’s Word would just come out making my faith stronger.

2. Be thankful. Overflowing in thankfulness. I love this one. If I want to see if I'm growing as a believer I want to see one of the tests that I can say is how grateful am I am i noticing the things that God is doing because if I’m spending time in God’s Word and I’m spending time with God, then I start to see all the things God is doing and I will have an attitude of gratefulness.

We have much to be grateful at Amberlea.  I pray you will join us this Sunday as we begin the celebrations!  We celebrate years of faithfulness and service in this community, but more importantly we celebrate that we are rooted in God, built up by God, strengthened through God and thankful to God!

Reap generously

Recently, I met an astounding person.  An individual who is kind, hopeful and exceedingly generous. It was humbling for me to see this person in action.

The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:16 challenged the believers in Corinth with this statement:

Remember this “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

When we read this verse, our heads may turn immediately, and maybe instinctually, to our finances but it is so much more that that.  I was inspired as I watched my new friend give freely of their time, their talents and their heart to a cause that they cared so deeply about.  What impressed me was how they showed up, and how by showing up their corner of the world was changed.

Now when I think of a person who sows generously, I think of a person who is constantly going above and beyond the status quo. Somebody who is going above and beyond the call of duty.  This is not a person who is just going through life checking  boxes in their home, in their job or in their school, but this is a person who is looking for opportunities to exceed other people’s expectations.

But here is what I also find true, in the case of my new friend who so generously goes above and beyond for others, they find themselves in situations that are above and beyond where they thought they would be in life.

What would have taken them 5 years to achieve, only took them 2 and I believe that happened as a result of the mindset they carry as it pertains to generosity.

Paul makes it clear in the surrounding text that we don’t give to get.  If we give, we should do so willingly and joyfully —not begrudgingly.

And what we sow with the right heart, God will surely multiply what we produce!

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

How might you sow generously today?  How can you go above and beyond for someone else?

With your attention?

With your words?

With your actions?

With your money?

Look for an opportunity to go above and beyond for someone else for as you sow generously, you will also reap generously!

Ice breaker

Last week, while the temperatures rose to incredible heights for early/mid April we were up at the cottage with dear friends (who are also colleagues). So it was a bit of work and a bit of rest after a very busy Holy Week.

When we arrived at the cottage the lake was as we left it — snowy and entirely covered with ice.

As the temperature soared, the sun blazed to melt away the ice.  We literally sat on the deck and watched as the ice broke way and melted into the waters below.  It was incredible to watch. Much more interesting than watching paint dry ;).

Within 48 hours the lake was transformed.

There was still some ice just beyond our shore but that did not deter Brian from grabbing the kayak and breaking through 100 yards of the soft ice and paddle into open water.

As he broke through the ice he created a channel it got me thinking about a common allegory.  A picture of Christians being a channel through which God’s love can flow.  The love doesn’t come from us. Rather, God is working through us.

And yet sometimes, things in our lives hinder the flow of God’s work through us. Stressful circumstances caused by work or relationships or finances, whatever it is.

Okay work with me on this… just like Brian in the Kayak broke through the ice, so can God break through all the stuff in our lives that constrict the flow of God’s love in and through us.  Okay, I get the analogy of Brian in a Kayak as God breaks down quickly, but as I was watching him breaking through the ice to open water —praying he wouldn’t tip over and die of hypothermia— that is the image I saw. God loving us so much that even when our hearts are frozen by the stresses and complication that life can bring — God can and will break through.  We just need to be willing, open and ready.  Not only can God break through and melt the ice but God can use it for good.

Look what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 5:4-3,

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

I like this quote from Tozer: “When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”

What do you think?

Can God be your ice breaker?