From the pastor, 2018 - 2019

oct   ·   nov   ·   dec - jan   ·   feb   ·   mar   ·   apr   ·   may   ·   jun

 

    The Pieces of Peace   (September 2018)

    I enjoy jigsaw puzzles, but only if I find the picture which the jigsaw puzzle is designed to restore an attractive one. If the picture on the puzzle box is of no interest to me, I will not invest the time to put the puzzle together.

    More to the point, though: if the puzzle pieces are simply in a heap on the table without a box, or are a jumble in an old plastic bag, with no picture of the finished puzzle available, it is far more daunting to invest time to sort them out and join them together, because there is no picture on which to focus. There is “no end in sight”, and I have to try to guess what kind of picture might come to exist.

    Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” (Matthew 5: 9) Making peace is different from keeping peace. Making peace involves engaging situations in which peace is absent — i.e. situations involving conflict. In order to succeed in making peace, one needs to have a vision or picture of what peace looks like. Yet when that is not clear, how can one proceed to be a peacemaker?

    One needs be at peace with oneself and at peace in oneself before one is able to work effectively at resolving outward conflict. If one is not at peace with oneself, one is likely to seek peace by changing the outward circumstances to suit one’s own need for peace, and that will likely affect — usually negatively — the outward circumstances of others involved in the conflict. If one is already at peace within oneself, then one is not dependent on changing outward circumstances or others’ situations to achieve a personally satisfying peace.

    Yet before one can be a peace with oneself, one needs be at peace with God. The prophet Isaiah understood this when he said, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.” (Isaiah 26: 3, KJV) If we are at rest in our relationship with God, if we are completely content with His sovereign control of our lives, we will not need to seek that peace and contentment by changing our outward circumstances, and therefore will be able to approach the changing of those circumstances from a wholistic perspective, seeking the welfare of the whole Church, to the honour of Christ.

    What I am suggesting is that the work of peacemaking — being peacemakers — begins by being at peace with God, through a personal, satisfying relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the foundation of our usefulness in being peacemakers in God’s kingdom. Too often we focus on the human needs — yours and mine, and maybe the other’s — and a search for peace becomes a tussle or tradeoff between the various personal needs of the group. The result is usually a compromise that may work for awhile, but often does not really satisfy. The better approach, and the one that is more likely to succeed in the long term, is to begin by submitting our own desires to God, and accepting His will for our lives, and genuinely being at peace with that first. That does not mean that we will not welcome change and improvement in outward circumstances — we will be glad of that, and the more the better — but our investment in making peace will not be dependent on or measured by what we may gain from the change or improvement.

    Jesus laid down His life for His friends —while we were still His enemies. He made peace by giving up His life, which first required Him to submit fully to His Father’s will: “Not my will, but yours.” (Luke 22: 42) This is the pattern God calls us to follow. The results of Jesus' action were to make peace far beyond His own immediate circumstances: “God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, … by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1: 19-20)

    All things were reconciled to God through Jesus’ peacemaking. He started with the right pieces, and assembled them in the right order. May He Who is our peace inspire and enable us to be the peacemakers God has called His children to be.

      Your pastor, in the cause of peacemaking,

        James T. Hurd

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    Old trees and new ones   (October 2018)

    Matthew 7: 17 - Every good tree bears good fruit. (NIV)

    In the recent tornado that tore through ArlingtonWoods and Craig Henry and Dunrobin and other neighbourhoods in Ottawa and Gatineau, many trees were felled. Some of those trees were 150 years old. These trees had stood for as long as Canada has been Canada!

    That got me thinking …

    If you were born when your mother was 30 years old, and your mother was born when her mother (your grandmother) was 30 years old, and your grandmother was born when her mother (your great grandmother) was 30 years old, and your great grandmother was born when her mother (your great great grandmother) was 30 years old, then a tree that crashed down in last week’s storm that was 150 years old was a tree planted by someone who lived at the same time as your great great grandmother.

    Now if you are a few years more or a few years less than 30 years old, and you plant a tree that lives for 150 years, the tree that you plant will be around for your great great grandchildren to see when they are 30 years old — or when those who are the great great grandchildren of your neighbours are 30 years old.

    Let us think about planting seeds, and dream about who will see the trees that grow from those seeds.

    Let us also think about planting seeds of faith, hope, and love, and ponder and pray about those who will see and reap the fruit of those seeds in the generations to come.

    Are we planting, and pruning, lives that point to trust in Jesus as the Saviour and Lord of our lives? Are we fruitbearing trees that drop the fruits of love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and gentleness, and faithfulness, and selfcontrol into the lives of those around us?What sort of growth and multiplication might take place if intentionally we sowed more of these seeds?

    Luke 8: 8 - Other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (NIV)

    Proverbs 11: 30 - The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. (NIV)

    I am grateful for those who planted and tended trees that have lived 150 years. I am even more grateful for Christians who planted the seeds of the faith in Jesus Christ into others’ lives 150 years ago, and for the multiplication of those seeds so that today we have living followers of Jesus around us. May we also plant those seeds, so that in generations to come the seeds will continue to multiply and bear fruit, as souls are brought to life in Jesus Christ.

      Your pastor, planting,

        James T. Hurd

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    God loves   (November 2018)

    Our purpose — our mission — at Parkwood is to enable individuals and families to discover, grow in, and share the love of God found in Jesus Christ.We state this up front, on the first page of our website. Thanks to our Korean brothers and sisters, it is displayed on a beautiful wooden plaque hanging prominently in our Gathering Place in the church building.

    This statement of our mission was drafted long before I arrived at Parkwood, and as I was reflecting upon it recently, my attention was drawn to the phrase, “the love of God”.When we talk about God’s love, what do we mean? I turned to the Bible, and found several places where God’s love is explained. In the original Greek language in which the New Testament was written, the word “agape” is used to describe the selfgiving, unconditional love of God. “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.” So says Jesus himself in talking with someone (Nicodemus) who was inquiring about how to discover and know God. (John 3:16)

    Three different apostles or messengers of Jesus use the phrase “God’s love” to call attention to the central focus of God’s design and plan for us.

    Paul says: “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5) The real focus of our lives is designed to be centred upon God’s love.

    John says, “If anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.” (1 John 2:5). We are made whole and complete when we follow Christ, who is God’s word come to us in living form.

    Jude concludes by saying, “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” (Jude 21). Surrounded and possessed by the love of God, we are to live out our earthly lives in anticipation of the enjoyment eternally of that love in perfect, perpetual union with Jesus Christ.

    On October 3rd, I was privileged to attend a reception at the Korean Cultural Centre in Ottawa to celebrate the opening of an exhibit highlighting the friendship between Korea and Canada, dating back 130 years to the arrival of the first Canadian missionaries to Korea. Vision Fellowship is an organization which has researched the history of Canadian Christians who, beginning in 1888, went to Korea to share God’s love found in Jesus Christ, and today are highly honoured as the men and women who, under God, planted and watered the seeds that have brought millions of Koreans to know and love and serve Jesus Christ, but who also built hospitals and schools, aiding and facilitating Korea’s independence and modernization. Some of the direct descendants of those first missionaries were present at the opening of the exhibit and spoke about their ancestors’ pioneering life and work. Dr. Robert Anderson, a retired missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Canada to the Korean population in Japan, was also present, and highlighted memorably how it was love for Jesus Christ and for His Korean brothers and sisters that motivated the sacrificial service of those who went to Korea and other parts of Asia to share God’s love.

    The love of God revealed in Jesus Christ manifests itself in sacrifice. Sometimes, amid the horrors of war, such love leads some to risk — and to make — the ultimate sacrifice. On November 11, 2018, we mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. As we do so, let us remember those who laid down their lives, seeking a just and lasting peace, to give others the opportunity and freedom to pursue life. Among them were disciples of Jesus Christ who gave all they had to give.

    As we pursue our lives, and life together in this world, may we discover, and grow in, and share, God’s selfgiving love, revealed in Jesus Christ.

      Your pastor, remembering and ever more thankful for the love of God found in Jesus Christ,

        James T. Hurd

    P. S. “The Deep-Rooted Friendship”: A special exhibition to commemorate the 130th anniversary of the Canadian Missionary Visit to Korea” is open to public viewing at the Korean Cultural Centre, 150 Elgin Street, Ottawa (on the first floor of the Shopify building, across from City Hall) from October 4, 2018 through January 11, 2019. For more information, see http://canada.korean-culture.org or call 613-233-8008. There is a poster on Parkwood’s bulletin board.


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    Mercy   (December 2018 - January 2019)

    Mercy is defined as compassion shown by one toward another who has no claim on the one showing the compassion.

    In the book of Psalms, there are several instances where individuals call out and cry for mercy from God. As creatures not of our own making, we are sometimes powerless to stand up against forces too strong for us, or to cope with circumstances that are simply overwhelming.We need help, and there are times when we have no means to buy it, and no one who owes us a favour.

    God is not in our debt. He does not owe us compassion. Yet He freely bestows mercy, as he chooses: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Exodus 33: 19) The apostle Paul quotes this very verse in Romans 9: 15 when he silences the argument that somehow God “should” do it every time and for every one.

    If we have received even some small mercy from God, it is appropriate for us not only to be thankful, but to reflect that mercy by extending mercy to others. If the merciful nature of God has been revealed to us in practice, it is not for our benefit alone. We are intended to reflect and display that merciful nature as part of the reborn image followers of Jesus are to live into and give to the world. Jesus said, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6: 36, NIV)

    Clearly, Jesus came to give us in plain view God’s mercy. “But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (Titus 3: 45, NIV)

    God intends and designs that Christians grow to show mercy. It is to God’s praise and joy that we do so. When Jesus’ call of Matthew the tax collector to become one of the disciples is followed by a complaint from the Pharisees as to why Jesus is associating with such “sinners”, Jesus says, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” (Matthew 9: 13, NIV)

    To those who show mercy, greater blessing is still promised: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,” is the way Jesus puts in the fifth beatitude (Matthew 5: 7, NIV).

    Before telling the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37), Jesus asked the “expert in the law” who wanted to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life what the word of God said. The expert knew that to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and to “love your neighbour as yourself” were what God required. He wanted, though, “to justify himself” and so he asks, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus tells the story of the priest and the Levite who both left a robbery victim half dead by the side of the road, and then mentions that the third passerby, a Samaritan, came to the aid of the victim, providing first aid, and then at personal cost paid for the man’s care while he recovered. Jesus then turns the question of the expert back and asks, “Which of the three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

    The expert in the law concludes that “the one who had mercy on him” was the neighbour, and Jesus then simply applies the lesson by saying, “Go and do likewise.”

    Jude begins his letter to Christian believers with the greeting and prayer “Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.” (Jude 2, NIV)

    As we come to season in which giving and receiving are in the forefront of public practice, let us ponder how much mercy is wrapped up in the gift of Jesus, and let us proclaim our answer in the practice of being merciful neighbours — to those in need who cross our paths.

      Your pastor, grateful for God’s mercies in Jesus Christ, and seeking to share them,

        James T. Hurd

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    Meditation   (February 2019)

    February is the shortest month. It comes, here in Ottawa, in the middle of a long winter. The canal is frozen, and a blanket of snow covers the ground. Many plants are dormant; many animals are hibernating; and many birds have disappeared for warmer places.

    We count 28 days from start to finish, and then we leave behind the greatest and coldest parts of the winter, and look forward with expectation to the arrival of spring.

    What to do, though, in February? For those who do not have the opportunity to travel to warmer places, and especially for those for whom the cold and the snow and the ice pose challenges to mobility, there is a need endure, to hang on, to press on.

    Yet God has a gift for those who face our February: meditation.

    The psalmist in the first three verses of Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.Whatever he does prospers.” (NIV)

    Notice with me the words “he meditates day and night”. To meditate is to reflect — to ponder, to think, to consider. In the relative quiet of winter’s long nights and sometimes tedious days, we have time — a short 28 days in this month — to meditate. The psalmist reminds us that a blessing awaits the one who “day and night” meditates on God’s word.We are blessed to have Bibles which contain not only the law of God but also the gospel of Jesus. By availing ourselves of the opportunities given to us to read and to reflect on what God has written for us, we place ourselves in the path of promised blessings.

    As we hibernate in February’s cold (and sometimes have snow days off from school or work!) and observe so much of the created living beauty of the plant and animal kingdoms lying dormant, let us dream of the trees planted by streams of flowing waters, with green leaves and bearing fruit. Let us look forward expectantly to the arrival of season when each “yields its fruit in season”. More so, let us use these days to consider more deeply what God has to say to each of us about our attitudes, our motives, our resources, our gifts, and our capabilities. Though perhaps now dormant, these may yet spring to life through the powerful working of His Holy Spirit in us. His design is to renew our attitudes and motives, and to enable us to use our resources and gifts to bear fruit in God’s renewal of all things. Christian disciples, individually, and as the church, together, are the means by which Jesus’ reign on earth is established — as we enrich others’ lives, sharing with them the truth and love which God has given to us and planted within us.

    I invite you to take a few minutes each day to read and meditate on a verse, or two, or even on a whole chapter of Scripture. If in your meditation, you come to realize something new — give thanks to God. If you wish, let me know what verses or chapters you are reading, and if appropriate, feel free to share with me what insights your meditation leads you to gain — by whatever means is easiest — letter, email, Facebook message, telephone, or in person.

    Let the 28 days of February be days of meditation on God’s word — and may we together look forward to future growth and fruit.

      Your pastor, meditating on the word of God, day and night, and inviting everyone to do so too,

        James T. Hurd

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    Why History Is Important   (March 2019)

    Luke 1: 14 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” (NIV)

    The passing of Evelyn Warburton on February 20, 2019 provides an opportunity for us to consider the importance of history in the life of the Christian and in the work and witness of the Christian Church.

    Evelyn was an original member of Parkwood Church, from its beginnings in 1964. Those who have come to Parkwood in the last few years may not have met or known her, as she was confined to a nursing home in recent years due to illness. Longertime members will perhaps remember her participation in the choir, her service as organist during summer months when others were on vacation, or her careful attention to watering flowers in the sanctuary.

    Beyond all of these memories, though, Evelyn served as the congregation’s historian. Having been present from the beginning, she was in a position to record firsthand many events in the life of Parkwood Church, and her handwritten volumes of congregational history are a valuable and lasting treasure for us and for future generations.

    History is largely out of fashion today. Very little history is taught in elementary schools; much history is passed over quickly or neglected altogether in secondary schools, and there are fewer and fewer students majoring in history at university at the present time. The reasons for this are many, and this is not the space or time to review them, but I would venture to suggest that Christian disciples have a particular reason to value history.

    In the introduction to his gospel, Luke tells his readers that his reason for writing is “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” (Luke 1: 4). The Christian gospel message is fact, not fiction. It is rooted in history, not fantasy. Luke knew that it was important to study and research what had taken place with respect to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus,. He undertook to review the ancient prophecies spoken and written centuries before the coming of Jesus, and then to compare the events reported by eyewitnesses who heard what Jesus said and who saw what Jesus did. He wrote an “orderly account” — an organized history. He knew this would serve to strengthen faith, grounded in historical fact, for generations to follow.

    Luke went on to write a second volume: the book we know as the “Acts of the apostles”, which brought the history of Jesus’ministry through the second generation up to date, to the time of Luke’s own life and participation in the ministry of the Church.

    We are the ones who benefit from Luke’s study and writing of history.We are also the ones who benefit from Evelyn’s recording and writing of Parkwood’s history. It helps us to know with certainty how a particular congregation of Christian disciples came to be, and to learn something about the people who shared in ministry, and those who gave leadership.We can be and are inspired by the labours of those who have gone ahead of us. From reading and reflecting on our history, we gain insight into the needs of the community which led to certain priorities being established and particular actions being undertaken.We need not be prisoners of history, but we can learn from what comprised a faithful and fruitful witness in the past.We need to apply the principles of Jesus’ teaching afresh in every age and generation, and in doing so there is wisdom to be gained from knowing what worked in the past and what mistakes might be best avoided in the future.

    It is more difficult to grasp and perhaps more difficult to appreciate history when it is written in a different language and describes a different and less familiar culture, but the more we learn, the more we have reason to thank God for his grace, his sovereign providence, and his care in preserving and empowering the body of Christ to fulfill his purposes in the world.

    Let us give thanks for history, and for historians — and let us resolve to learn more of history of the Christian Church, including Parkwood. Let us also commit to writing more history — as we enter into Christ’s service to our neighbours.

      Your pastor, thankful to have learned much from historians, including Luke and Evelyn,

        James T. Hurd

    P.S. If you have not read Parkwood’s annual report for the year 2018, I encourage you do so. It is available online on our website, or in printed form from the church office.


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    Well Watered   (April 2019)

    This is the season of flowing water. After a long winter, with plenty of snow and ice, melting is proceeding apace. One of the challenges is to channel water to go where it should (into drains and ditches) and not where it shouldn’t (into ceilings and basements). On several recent occasions, I have shovelled water across the “hump” in the middle of the street in front of our house, so that the water would run into the storm sewer on the other side of the street, rather than pool and freeze to form a fresh skating rink at the foot of our driveway.

    God designed water to flow in low-lying valleys to provide beasts and birds with vital refreshment to sustain life. Human life is dependent on an abundant supply of fresh water.

    Psalm 104: 10-16 -- He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate — bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. The trees of the Lord are well watered. (NIV)

    Jesus needed ordinary water to quench his thirst, just as all of us do. Yet when he sought such water one day at Jacob’s well in Sychar, he used the opportunity provided by an initial rebuff from the Samaritan woman at the well to offer her the “living water” of the Spirit of the living God. He knew that such spiritual water was also essential for life. Indeed, Jesus went on to proclaim publicly at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem that “If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, as John tells us. (John 7: 37-39, NIV)

    We need to drink water daily to sustain our physical bodies. We also need to drink deeply, and daily, from Jesus, the wellspring of the water of life, to sustain our spirits.

    Our drinking, though, is not sustainable unless the water flows through us, and provides benefit for others. The prophet Isaiah challenges us: “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” (Isaiah 58: 9-11) The promise of our life together being like a well-watered garden is rooted in our being channels through which the gracious mercy of God flows to bless and sustain and renew others’ lives.

    As we watch the flowing spring waters of winter’s runoff, and as we work to channel such water in right and healthy directions, may we also give attention to enabling the waters of the Spirit to flow in ways that bless others in Jesus’ name.

      Your pastor, shovelling water and seeking to let the Spirit flow, too,

        James T. Hurd

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    Hurt people hurt people   (May 2019)

    Psalm 147: 3 “ He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (NIV)

    A few years ago (2001), SandraWilson wrote a book entitled, “Hurt people hurt people”. From her experience as a Christian counsellor, the author had discovered in dealing with “difficult” people and those affected by them that many troubles and conflicts have at least some of their roots in past, unhealed, or unresolved hurts. Individuals who have been wounded may often carry scars that have not healed.

    Such wounds may take many forms, and may cause much greater harm to many more people.

    We are increasingly familiar with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, in which infants, children, and even grown adults bear the consequences of a mother’s consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Sometimes the “hurt” is unknowingly transmitted to the offspring. We also know that the trauma of childhood sexual abuse can not only leave deep emotional scars on the child abused, but may also lead that child to perpetuate abuse on a child or children of the next generation. Relationships with spouses may be adversely affected, as the consequences of past behaviour infect others, either intentionally or unintentionally.

    Wounds need not be physical or mental or emotional — they may well be spiritual in nature.

    In the 2014 movie, “God’s Not Dead”, a college professor vehemently insists that “God is dead”, and demands all the students in his class to say so and sign their names to a paper asserting such. One student, a young Christian, refuses, and is bullied by the professor to “make his case” in front of the class, and the professor callously goes to great lengths to refute him. In the end, the professor is so angry with the student’s arguments that he overplays his opposition, and lets the truth slip that the professor in fact hates God— with a hatred that can only be directed at One who is alive! The sad part of the story, though, is that the root of the hatred is traced to unresolved, unanswered prayer, in which God did not grant the professor’s early childhood prayer for healing of a dying family member. Identifying and unmasking this memory and reality is the basis for addressing it, and bringing to an end the ongoing hurting of many others.

    How easy it is for any one of us to share our unresolved problems with others. All of us are happy to have a listening ear for our troubles, and it is good for us to share some burdens that others may help us to bear them. Yet it is often all too easy for us to prejudice others’ attitudes or decisions about people or businesses by lashing out or broadly speaking ill of them, based on one incident of harm or hurt. Just because one employee of a firm did not treat us kindly or fairly does not necessarily mean that we are justified in badmouthing the whole enterprise for days, weeks, years, or decades to come! Yet that is what we may well do, if a past “hurt” has not been healed or resolved, or at least left in God’s care and keeping for His justice, mercy, or appropriate response — we risk hurting others, at the same time as we continue to suffer the hurt.

    None of us is immune from hurt, and when we are aware that our brokenness may very well lead us to project toward others some of the consequences of our hurts, we are able to begin to address some of those hurts in beneficial ways — ways that promote our own healing, and also help others.

    We seek to be careful in not spreading germs or sharing our dose of the cold or the flu. Let us also pray God to heal us, to make us whole — and to keep us from inappropriately passing our spiritual hurts on or multiplying them in the lives of others.

    Luke 9: 11 “ He [Jesus] welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.” (NIV)

    Paul reminds us of a great truth in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 when he says that “God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ … gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (NIV)

    Resolving or reconciling our spiritual wounds with God is essential — not only for our own health — but also to equip us to be channels of blessing rather than injury to others.

      Your pastor, grateful for the healing grace of Jesus, praying for the healing of broken hearts and wounded souls, and praying that we may be His agents and ambassadors of this healing,

        James T. Hurd

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    Giving an account   (June 2019)

    We put a high value on individual freedom. We are blessed with many options from which to choose. Whether in the stores or online, we can pick and choose colours, sizes, shapes, and from a host of other variable things to suit our individual preferences and tastes.

    Many of us prize individual freedom in school, at work, and in retirement. We can decide what courses to take (or not), what assignments to accept (or not), and where to travel (or not).

    One of the dangers, though, in so much individual choice is that we resist or resent being accountable for our choices. Many times we feel like we only have to answer to self, since self made the choice.

    Jesus, though, shows us a different way. He modelled accountability. “Not my will, but yours be done,” Jesus said to the Father (Luke 22: 42). In the parable of the shrewd manager, he tells the story of an individual who lost his job as a manager after being accused of waste. “Give an account of your management” he was told (Luke 16: 2).

    The requirement to account for what we do (i.e. the choices we make) and for what we do with what is entrusted to us (“To whom much is given, of him will much be required”, Luke 12: 48, RSV) extends even to our words: “I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” (Matthew 12: 36)

    When we embrace God on His terms — accepting forgiveness for our failings freely offered to us through the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf — we place our trust in Jesus. We are then entrusted with new life. God’s servant Paul reminds us of a very important truth. “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." (1 Corinthians 4: 2)

    How we then live in response to the gracious life entrusted to us means that our freedom as individuals is exercised in tandem with our responsibilities to the community in which we are given a place. Paul puts it this way:

    “Therefore, I urge you … in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Godthis is your spiritual act of worship. … For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." (Romans 12: 1, 38)

    We are called and equipped by the Holy Spirit to use our gifts with a clear sense of responsibility and accountability to the community of believers, and to Christ himself. Let us therefore embrace our duties as fully as we celebrate our freedoms, and give ourselves joyfully and faithfully in service.

    Grateful for the privilege to serving, and conscious of being called to duty as one who is also called — and will be called — to give an account,

      Your pastor,

        James T. Hurd

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