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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-01-05, Page 16Cfiriatian January 8: Psalm 103 "How can I know for sure God is loves me?" Evangelical Missionary Church 10:30 am. - Contemporary Worship at Blyth Public School, corner of King & Mill Mondays 6:45 pm Junior Girls Mondays & Tuesdays 7:00 pm Small Group Fridays Wan. 13) 7:00 pm Youth Group Pastor: Ernest Dow - 523-4848 www.getlivingwater.org Ctocl THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA ens 20eicomee rue to come awe atevtd4 eat% ad SUNDAY, JANUARY 8 Trinity, Blyth 9:30 a.m. St. John's, Brussels 11:15 a.m. The Rev. Tom Wilson, B.A., MDiv. 887-9273 HURON CHAPEL EVANGELICAL MISSIONARY CHURCH SING A SON OF groat,Se Auburn - 526-1131 PASTOR DAVE WOOD Sunday Tuesday Wednesday 9:30 a.m. 10:30 a.m. 7:30 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 7:00 p.m. - Family Bible Hour - Morning Worship Service - Evening Worship Service - Jr. & Sr. Youth Bible Study - Olympians - Adult Bible Study BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE, UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA Sandra Cable, Worship Leader Church Office 887-6259 E-mail - bepc@wightman.ca , Sunday, January 8 Ethel United Church 9:30 a.m. Brussels United Church 11:00 a.m. Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship BLYTH UNITED CHURCH Corner of Dinsley & Mill Street Sunday, January 8 Worship Service, Sunday School & Nursery 11:00 a.m. Minister: Rev. Robin McGauley Welcawa Office: 523-4224 Blyth United Church is a welcoming community of faith. We celebrate God's presence through worship and study, and through responding to the needs and gifts of each other Sanctuary MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS Sandav, Youtuaw 8 11:00 a.m. - Sunday Morning Worship - Sunday School 9:30 a.m. - Sunday Belgrave Service Wheelchair accessible Nursery care available Rev. Cathrine Campbell - 887-9831 cosi munity Church 16140 Of Gee "The Church is not a Building, It is People Touching 41,ZAII People" Sunday 9:45 a.m. - Power Hour Circus (Ring of Relationships) 11:00 a.m. - Worship Service Mid-week Bible Studies Phone 440-8379 308 Blyth Rd. E. - Pastor Les Cook 523-4590 PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2006. From the Minister's Study • Having more not the answer to happiness By Pastor John Kuperus Blyth Christian Reformed Church Suppose you are a farmer and you can deliver your corn to one place and receive $2.50 per bushel. You can deliver it to another place and receive $3.50 per bushel. Which place would you deliver your corn? Suppose you have a choice to work your 100 acres of land with a Farmall M or John Deere 7420. Which would you choose? Suppose you are going to a farm show in Alberta compliments of a seed company. You can fly in the business class or first class. Which would you choose? In each of these instances given a choice, we would move up. We like to advance on the ladder and feel that the higher we get the more satisfaction, the more joy, the more good times we can have. The economic climate we live in with crop prices being low, interest rates on CDS being low and the challenge of finding jobs, can make us feel discontent. The challenging economic picture can make one feel this is not a good situation. The Bible would encourage everyone to ask how true is it that satisfaction is found in having more and more. The Bible gives strong warning against seeking more and more. The more prosperous we get, we are getting in increasingly dangerous territory, because we can get addicted to achievements and power, and think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Soon we might feel like we do not need God. We might think we do not need our spouse. We might think we do not have time for our children. Success on lead us to a place of an-ogance and independent spirit and in the process, lose our soul. Sometimes when things go down, our openness to God goes up. Sometimes when things go down, we appreciate other people more and engage in relationships more. In view of that, let us look at Jesus. The Bible says, "God sent his Son. It a person is sent, that means he had a previous existence. Jesus started out in heaven and came down to earth. That was a step down. He is God and he becomes a baby. He grows up and is a rabbi/teacher. He does not take a university position and teach for a few years and head back to heaven. Instead, he dies on a cross, being cursed by God and man, an awful way to die. One of the challenges we face-is we do not know what heaven is like, so we do not know the incredible step down Jesus took. In the movie Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, an elderly preacher describes how he imagines heaven: "Mainly I just think about the splendours of the world and multiply by two. I'd multiply by 10 or 12 if I had the energy. But two is much more than sufficient for my purposes." If you have gone on a cruise or experienced a vacation of great luxury that is only a tiny fraction of what heaven is like. The happiest moment of your life is only a shadow of what life in heaven is like. Jesus came from that environment, comes to planet earth and wakes up with in a smelly stable. The first sights and sounds come from animals. He smells their urine and manure. The animals make noise and have to adjust to this baby in their midst. In heaven Jesus experiences thousands of angels singing "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." Jesus is given proper recognition for whom he is. Now Jesus is on earth and there are the sheep and a few people standing around, but the relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is different now. He is in a manger, hoping his mom and dad will take care of him with feeding and cleaning at the right times. He is powerless. We have no idea what this was like. We have no idea what this step down was like.. Jesus does not stay a baby. He becomes a man. His earthly father was a carpenter, but Jesus becomes a teacher. His teaching calls people to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. He asks people to change their lives. Most people do not want to change. Change comes hard and is usually rationalized that God would not expect us to do that and so we walk away from the message without changing. In Jesus' day, they got so upset with him that they tried to kill him at different times and eventually succeeded. Imagine the Creator of the world, the second Person of the Trinity being told we are not going to listen to what you have to say. You are asking too much, it sounds like you are from another planet. In fact, they despise Him and looked for ways to get rid of Him. In this stepping down, He agrees to die on a cross. It is one thing to die of a heart attack or of some other illnest, but for the second Person of the Trinity to die as a criminal on a cross, this is humiliating. His society has agreed He is a problem and they would be better off without Him. The sad truth is that the religious establishment is the ones who were most adamant about having Jesus killed. They are the ones who convinced the political establishment to crucify Jesus. On top of that, crucifixion is to be cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:23). Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, went from heaven to earth, was both as a baby and died as a criminal. We have no concept what that was like. Why would Jesus do that? Most of us want to go higher on the ladder, not lower. The answer is in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son." Jesus left heaven because of love. The world had a problem called sin. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). God was motivated to address the human problem of sin and he did it out of love. This was costly love. Jesus gave up everything. It is still costly. One way for us to identify with this costly love is by parenting. Parenting begins with desire to have children. The wife conceives and excitement develops with this new life. The mom takes a step down. Her body expands in a way it never expanded before. She was slender and becomes large. The parents also need to have a place for the baby, a room with a crib. An investment of time and energy goes into the preparation for the little one. Once the baby arrives, the parents no longer sleep the way they used to. As the baby grows, then there are all the hockey games to go to, the dances, the piano lessons, etc. You pour all kinds of emotional energy into your child. Then they get their licence and parents are worried about what their children are doing at midnight. Then comes college time and the expense involved with that. You love your child and it costs you. You take steps down and that is the way love works. You make one investment after another. Parents, who take steps down like Jesus did, tend to wind up with families that know joy. Parenting is about giving and investing, and eventually those kids go into the world as productive individuals. In Philippians 2, we are called to have the same attitude of. Christ, who humbled Himself out of love for you and me. I like to challenge you this New Year to love and serve your family and neighbours. Take intentional steps down and serve someone else in a practical way. Serve someone who cannot pay you back and who does not necessarily deserve it. Visit someone. Write a card. Give some money away anonymously. Call someone and tell him or her you are calling them because you care about them. My wife's friend gave some advice to my wife. She said the best gift to give to our children, was to give ourselves. We do not need more stuff, but we need to invest ourselves in one another. You lose a little bit when you expend yourself in loving. Jesus gave us Himself. Jesus took steps down that are difficult for us to comprehend. When we enter heaven we might say, "I had no idea what Jesus sacrificed for me!" (Some ideas for this article were drawn from a message by Bill Hybels entitled Christmas of Another Kind.) pleatte /tie* ud h4 04$440 Sunday, January 8 Morning Worship Service - 10 a.m. Evening Worship Service - 7:30 p.m. BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH Pastor John Kuperus Hwy. 4, Blyth 523-9233 Wheelchair accessible