Do you long for good news? I feel like I hear a lot of good news in today’s world and yet very little of this good news sticks. Much of it doesn’t really affect my life or doesn’t affect our particular struggles and so we keep looking and longing. Yet this Sunday we will hear about the sharing of a good news that leads to joy for all those that heard it: those going through persecution, those searching, and those disconnect and without family.

In the book of Hebrews, we are reminded to outdo one another in helpfulness, kindness, and good deeds. Sometimes in our present day, though, it is hard to know how to truly take care of one another and to be truly helpful. We know people's physical needs, but we are often less willing to step into their spiritual and emotional needs (if we even know them). The hard part about this is that we look so much to someone's physical needs that we forget that many of the other needs are even more important. Lastly, sometimes we get so caught up in our own desires and needs that we forget the needs of the other. Join us this Sunday when we explore how to be truly helpful and kind.

I am excited this Sunday to have our first real BBQ all together on our patron saint Sunday. This is a fantastic opportunity, as we are all together, as we sing with our worship band, and as we gather around delicious food to invite friends and family. 

 So often though, things stand in our way when doing this. What stands in your way of inviting someone into this church or your faith? There are so many things in the world that resist God and faith, but when it comes to sharing faith, I have found that the majority of the resistance comes within ourselves. We are scared of what it might do to the relationship, we are scared we don’t know enough, we are scared it might be awkward or they won’t like it. Knowing who this community is, it makes me a lot less scared to invite someone in. Knowing how much joy and love we have experienced through this faith, it makes me a lot less scared. Knowing how much hope and life it gives me in the worst times, it makes me a lot less scared. We still have to step out with boldness though. We need to be courageous enough to step beyond our fear and show people God through word and action. There is no greater authority in heaven and earth and so we really have nothing to be afraid of. Join us Sunday as we explore resistance to and boldness for the Kingdom of God. 

There is something, so simple, that we can all do, that would have a drastic affect on our lives, yet it is something we rarely do. It is prayer. I have heard many reasons people don’t pray, like God doesn’t care, or it won’t change anything, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Prayer is affective as it affects us, the world and God. God cares about us and the world so only imagine what a consistency in prayer could mean and do and you may be approaching its affect, but I can do even more. This Sunday we look at the importance of prayer and how and when God wants us to come to him with our needs.

Do you realize how short and brittle life is? Do you realize how easily this stuff, wealth, and comfort might be taken away from you? The dishonest manager realized this and so it greatly changed the way he used both. It is more like this life and stuff is on loan to us from our master: God. How might we use it in such a way to show ourselves trustworthy for an even greater bounty? This Sunday we explore how this fickle life might prepare for us a lasting and eternal bounty.

In our life, we count the cost of many things. This vacation, this object, this job, this action, these words, but have you counted the cost of being a disciple of Christ? The world may think the cost is something, but we know the cost is even greater. Jesus challenges the way we live in every way. An equally important question is what is the cost of not being a disciple of Christ? We will find that Jesus asks a lot of us, but there is so much more in following him than not.

Do you ever feel like you deserve more? Or maybe you feel like you deserve everything you have or get? I have come to realize that it is the opposite for me. I don’t deserve these blessings, I don’t deserve anything more than anyone else. Not because I haven’t worked hard, or cared for people, but because I was created for so much more. God keeps giving to me anyways and it is amazing how he responds to the littlest I do. This Sunday we explore what we deserve and how God keeps graciously giving to us anyways. 

Do you ever feel the need to be productive? There can be this drive in us to keep moving forward, to accomplish something, to do something. Yet, a lot of progress doesn’t always feel like progress. There are a lot of things we or others do in the name of productivity that don’t actually seem to make the world a better place. This Sunday we look at what we produce and where it directs us. What we will find is that God directs us to a true and lasting kind of productivity.

Does God hear us? Does he care? Will he really answer our prayers? These are all important questions, but the sad reality is that too often we have predecided the no. So, we never ask. God will often provide even when we don’t ask, like any loving parent. The bigger question though, is what do we lack because we never asked God? It might be that God doesn’t respond the way we want, but he knows what is best for us. What do we miss because we don’t invite God in? More than you might think, because God does respond.

Who is my neighbor? A question that could sum up many conversations happening in North America over the past few years. Jesus challenges us to see those who are most different from us as our neighbors but it goes deeper than that. Jesus redefines for us a love that is extraordinary. A love that is about serving one another but more than that, it is about knowing God.

When you hear the word evangelism what do you think? I have found that many people, myself included, start with a poor understanding of what evangelism is. Luke's gospel has the longest section of Jesus sending out his disciples and so gives us a great vision of how we can share Jesus and his Kingdom.

The Holy Spirit is powerful. When you add that to what we have already learned, how the Holy Spirit is present, uniting, prays for us, our breath, and wisdom itself, that means that anything is possible.

It starts with us. We are the ones who can welcome in or resist the Holy Spirit. We can struggle with the fire that burns in us or it can ignite us to wonderful things. The big first question is how we are going to relate to that powerful Spirit that can do anything.

You may remember last year that we looked at the work of the Holy Spirit. This year we are looking at the characteristics of the Holy Spirit. My hope is that we might better know and participate in the Holy Spirit so that his powerful work might be seen in and around us.

This week we look at how the Holy Spirit is related to the breath and to the wind. The breath fills us and gives us our life and being. The wind blows around us, moving and shaping the world. In both of these, we can begin to know and experience the life-giving and powerful reality of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever experienced one of those transcendent moments that defy explanation? I won't pretend they happen often, but I have experienced them on top of mountains, praying, meditating on Scripture, during Bible studies, writing, and sometimes in the simplest moments. It is as if something beyond that moment is suddenly speaking into it in a profound way.

Thursday was Ascension day. The day we celebrate Jesus' ascension into heaven. It is not a day we talk about often, because though art can sometimes capture its grandeur our words often fail. Yet, the amazing thing is that Jesus brings his humanity with him into God, but also sends God to us in the Holy Spirit. This means more than we can really understand, but it presents to us our immense destiny, purpose, and a new found life in Christ.

There is a lot in this world that could scare us, make us worry, or that could cause us to believe there isn't enough. This is because the world believes this to be the reality. The world believes that death is our inevitable end and it often believes that suffering is the worst thing that could happen.

We know differently. We have been faced with the reality of Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection, so we know that God can and does overcome it all. We have a better good news than the world does as reality has changed to lead us to life and bounty. The hardest part is that we need to trust this new reality enough to live into it, to have faith and follow God even when we doubt. Then we can lead others to this amazing good news as well. Join us this Sunday as we dig into the Great Commission.

God bless you all.

Your brother in Christ,

Rev. Philip Stonhouse

Have you ever wondered what God’s purpose for you is? I don’t think you would be alone, though I also don’t believe it is as hard as we make it out to be.

Part of that is that we and our culture don’t always make it easy to live out or see our purpose. Our purpose is contained within every situation, every relationship, every skill, and every gift. Our purpose from the beginning of creation is to bear fruit and tend the garden. So we are meant to be God’s blessing, to share God’s blessing and to increase God’s blessing in everything else. This is both general, but also particular to each of us. Now, we just have to learn how to do that in our lives. Join us this Sunday when we will explore this more.

A 5-week Lenten Bible Study that uses the spiritual practices of journaling, sabbath, fasting, giving, prayer and praise, as a way of turning away from the idols we create to centre our lives on Christ.