News from March 2010
Easter week
Posted on March 26, 2010 by Pastor Tom
Hi everyone: Hope you have a super Easter week remembering His great love! PT
Parenting with hope
Posted on March 24, 2010 by Pastor Tom
We had a fabulous weekend where God moved us as a church. If you missed Sunday, the entire congregation came forward at the end of the service to pick up a stone and declare that Today we will choose to serve the Lord. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” said Joshua. Through the Saturday night seminar and Sunday morning message by Mark Holmen, we learned of the tragic statistics – 60–90% of the children raised in Christian homes leave the faith in their young adult years. One of the primary reasons is they have not seen faith at home. It’s faith at church. We at SVBC want to be a people who live out our faith at home, on the bus, in the car, at work, at school and at church.
Here’s something I came across today to encourage parents in even the worst of times.
Enjoy.
50 reasons why Jesus came to die
Posted on March 18, 2010 by Pastor Tom
Here’s a great way to prepare for Easter. Read through this list of 50 reasons why Jesus came to die from John Piper. http://www.desiringgod.org/Store/Books/660_Fifty_Reasons_Why_Jesus_Came_to_Die/
You can also download the book for free or order it online. It moves Easter a little beyond bunnies!
Easter - Ho Hum or Wholly Marvelous?
Posted on March 17, 2010 by Pastor Tom
So Easter weekend is just over 2 weeks away. Will it be just another Long weekend and time with some family? Not that time with family is unimportant. But Easter is really about the cross and resurrection.
Our attitude to Easter weekend might serve as a good barometer to our heart for God right now. I love how Jonathan Edwards put it over 200 years ago – “That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull and lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference. God, in His Word, greatly insists upon it, that we be in good earnest, “fervent in spirit,” and our hearts vigorously engaged in religion.” (By religion, Edwards does not mean ‘go to church’ or ‘engage in religious activities’ but have a passionate heart for God!).
So when we think about Easter is our heart raised but a little above a state of indifference (Ho Hum) or is it fervent in spirit – Romans 12:11 (Wholly Marvelous)?
The washing of feet; the last supper; Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me; but not my will, may yours be done; the betrayal; the arrest; the trial; the abuse; the rejection by the crowd; the way of the cross; the crucifixion; forgiving those who crucified Him and one thief on the cross; the wrath of God we deserved poured out on Him; IT IS FINISHED!
His death, his burial, Sunday morning, The empty tomb; the angels; He is not here!; He lives now and forever.
All for you and me! Wholly Marvelous!
Extreme Family Makeover
Posted on March 12, 2010 by Pastor Tom
We make vacation plans, retirement plans and education plans. We envision redecorating and renovation plans for our homes. We check our blackberries or calendars for our personal schedule plan.
But we can fail to plan in the most important area of life – spiritual development. We have a unique opportunity next weekend. It’s called Extreme Family Makeover. If you live in or around the Edmonton area, I invite you to join us Saturday, March 20 at 7 PM. Guest Speaker Mark Holman will talk about the tragic neglect of spiritual formation within something like 90% of Christian homes.
Check out this link to see a little more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56WbNQ6fDtY
Hope to see you there!
T.
Easter's hope deals with shattered Utopia
Posted on March 4, 2010 by Pastor Tom
Utopia – “a condition, place or situation of social and political perfection.” Heading into the last century, many believed utopia was possible because of the advance of man. Man could create this world himself. Mankind needed no savior. We would save ourselves and create the ideal world.
It’s a great ideal. But there’s only one problem. It doesn’t deal with the biggest problem – what’s wrong with man. The 20th century shattered the Utopian dream.
I just finished reading a book called Armenian Golgotha. It was originally written in Armenian in 1922 by a survivor of the Armenian genocide. It has just been translated into English. The author was a priest in the Armenian Orthodox church in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was arrested along with other Armenian intellectuals in 1915. He survived through nearly 4 years of deportations and death marches. Many were deported to northern Syria where it is claimed hundreds of thousands died. Some estimate 1.2 million Armenians were murdered or died during this time. Others claim the number was less and that many thousands of Muslims died.
His sole determination was to survive so he could tell the story. The author tells much of what he witnessed. He also recounts several stories he heard from other survivors.
But as I read this book, I kept asking how can humans do that to other humans? Here were apparently civilized people groups. Yet given the opportunity to act on ethnic tensions, they slaughter each other? How can this be?
Yet, we’ve seen the same story repeated over and over in the past 100 years: The Holocaust; Stalin and the murder of millions of his own people; Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur. The past 100 years shattered the myth of utopia – an ideal world that humans can create themselves by living in harmony with each other.
But God stepped in 2000 years earlier to deal with this. He sent Jesus to die for man’s biggest problem – the sin inside us. That’s what Easter is all about. We no longer have to hope in the unattainable dream of utopia. We have the certain hope of a Savior who came into history.