News from January 2011
God's work among us
Posted on January 19, 2011 by Pastor Tom
Do you ever wonder if God is real or is doing anything among us as a church today? I received some proof today in this note.
“I watched her die. It took six months from diagnosis and I knew all along she was going to die. However, it wasn’t until 1:05am, June 5th, 1995, I realized she was gone and wasn’t coming back. I was 16 and her funeral signified the last day for 15 years I would set foot inside a church.
I have to be quite honest and admit that I don’t know if I stopped believing in God so much as I was sure that he stopped believing in me. I was lost after my mom died, as if I wasn’t lost enough just by being 16, I had lost the one person I truly thought I would never lose. My father was a great father throughout everything but he lacked one strong characteristic, he wasn’t my mother.
The next 12 years would prove challenging. I got my first boyfriend, my first child, I graduated from Medical Radiation Technology, I lost a baby, I moved numerous times, I had another baby, I would lose my boyfriend and rush into another relationship and then in 2007 I almost died. On June 25th, 2007, I hemorrhaged, had emergency surgery and blood transfusions. I was the patient I always treated. Lying there in a hospital bed was when I knew I had to stop being a passive participant in my life and that I had to take my life back. When I got out of the hospital I ended my destructive relationship, got a dog, took my kids to Disney World and was pretty confident I didn’t need anybody.
God didn’t have a role in my life beyond a bystander for those 12 years. I have always known God existed and I prayed constantly that he was taking care of my mom but I didn’t really pray for myself because that was selfish.
In September 2008 I was given an opportunity to change careers, I did and slowly started to feel valued for what I could offer. Something I had not felt very often.
January 2010 my 3rd relationship failed and I spent a lot of time with self-pity. Little did I suspect things would get worse. April 2010 Chandra would come to my door and give me a ticket for The Big Cook night at the church. What Chandra didn’t know that day was how significantly that act would affect my life. In March, I had begun to get ill. It started slowly, first in my ankles, then it moved to my knees, then my elbows and then one day I couldn’t walk down the stairs of my 2-story house.
The first diagnosis was Rheumatoid Arthritis, the second diagnosis was Lupus but when the doctor’s found my lungs were affected, the decided diagnosis was Sarcoidosis and I was dealing with all of this when Chandra had come to the door.
The Big Cook night was the first time in 15 years I set foot inside a church and somewhat significantly Mother’s Day was the first service I attended at SVBC. I have been attending services fairly regularly since.
I have my questions and maybe I always will. I have to accept that I won’t know everything – God will tell me what I need to know in His own time.
I do know 2 things – after leading many different kinds of lives I am choosing to lead a life led by Jesus Christ and the Bible. The second thing I know is I aspire to demonstrate my faith the way I have seen the SVBC congregation do. I have been a victim of the kindness of the people here and for that I am forever changed. I know now that God exists and he cares for me.”
We exist so God can keep doing His work like this folks. Keep on keeping on!
The Peril of New Year's Resolutions
Posted on January 7, 2011 by Pastor Tom
How are your New Year’s resolutions going? Some of you made it a day. Some might have lasted a week. Some of you are still going strong. What makes or breaks our ability to carry out a New Year’s resolution?
Let’s think about the process of making a resolution. First, we have to admit reality. We’ve gained weight. We eat or drink too much. We watch a lot of TV or fight with our in-laws. We’re not having enough fun. We’re not spending enough time with someone important. Then we decide what needs to change. We will eat less; drink less; watch less TV or fight less. Or we will have more fun or make more time. Good start.
But now comes the hard part – keeping the resolution. How do we do that? Some of us turn to our inner strength and discipline. Some ask friends to join with so there is built in encouragement. Some hire personal trainers. Some succeed maybe for a month or two or even longer. Some fail or give up.
Why did some succeed and some fail? There are many factors but I think one of the greatest is the R word – Resolve. If a resolution is “a declaration or decision to do something,” resolve is “determination, decision, tenacity and doggedness” to fulfill a resolution. Resolve is great when we’re strong. But what about when we’re weak? That’s when the resolve to carry out resolutions can fail. When that happens, we have another decision to make. Do we give up or get up? Do we live with the freedom to fall down and get back up or do we hold ourselves to some standard that declares we can only fulfill the resolution if we never fail?
Some of my fellow Christians might present themselves as better than you (even though they’re not). Some might claim that you just need to try harder. But I think people who really get Christianity start by admitting they need help to get up.
The whole Christian message is wrapped around God sending Jesus to help the fallen. When God “helps us up” we don’t just go walking off in our own steam never to turn to God again. Christians who get the Bible understand that our life is one of constant dependence on God. That might sound weak and crutch-like. But it’s real. I think New Year’s resolutions and our inability to carry them out consistently exposes in us the reality of our fallen nature.
The great thing about walking with God is that we live in grace. Yes we fall down. But He gives us grace and strength to get back up again. So by the end of 2011, we might have broken a New Year’s resolution 20 times. But we might have kept it 200 times. That’s progress. So whether or not you made some resolutions; whether or not you’ve already broken them, I want to know that there is Someone who can walk with you to make progress on them and the whole of life. If you want to know more about Him, please contact me – pastortom@svbc.ab.ca or 780–458-3777.