Moving on can be fearful and uncertain but it can also be useful for growth. However, we allow ourselves to get so beaten down that we wonder if we should even go on and, in the process, we resist trusting God. We need to push aside this fear and not be shackled by what we were. Instead, we need to learn to forgive ourselves and press on to be who God made us to be.
Father’s Day reminds us of our heavenly father and his perfect template of fatherhood. Good, who is father to all, adopted us as we are and makes and treats us as equal to Christ. Today’s sermon reminds us that the greatest responsibility for men is to be a father and using God’s template to break generational cycles that keep us from comforting and encouraging our children.
Can you imagine a world with no “no”s? Today, Guy Hammond reminds us that freedom is not the ability to do what you want but the ability to choose NOT to do what you want. We are then encouraged to remember that Christianity isn’t about how bad sin is, but about how good Jesus is and that is the message we should be sharing.
Today’s meeting of the Canadian churches reminds us of how the pandemic forced us to rethink what “church” meant. We are encouraged to remember that God has a way of bringing us where he wants us, regardless of what our plans might be. As long as we are together, unified, and focused on God, we can stay strong and be secure in our place in the world.
We are taught that God takes great ideas like compassion and graciousness and shows us what that looks like in Jesus. Tony reminds us that it’s not enough to look at who God IS but we must also look at what He DID. Like Jesus, you don’t need a lot to have compassion, you just need to have the right heart.
As we finish our look at the book of Philippians, we look at the importance of attitude in the face of adversity. We are all different people facing different challenges, if we live in a community of harmony and humility, we can live joyfully regardless of our life circumstances. Ultimately, we are reminded that it is not enough to just say we are something (i.e. Christian), we must also be the face of that to which we claim.
Today we are shown how God uses mothers to reflect certain parts of his own character. Through the sharing of four individuals, we see various perspectives highlighting the importance of mothers in the world as well as in the church.
Whatever may happen, each member of the body of Christ belongs to each other. We must meet the needs of each other through communication, playing our unique parts and striving together to play our part
We don’t get to choose our families. And yet often they are the closest people we’ve got. In the same way, we don’t get to choose our spiritual family. We’ve got to find a way to love one another. After all, deep love for one another is the only way people will be able to tell that we are from one spiritual family.
Today we reflect on and celebrate the events which took place around 2000 years ago. Tony reminds us that the truth of the bodily resurrection of Christ is one of the most important parts of our faith. For, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 if these events are not true, then where is our hope and what is the point of our faith at all?