Bethel Crc Lacombe

Today we will be continuing our series based on 2 Corinthians 4:7, Jars of Clay, we will be reflecting on 1 Kings 19:1-21, Elijah: All Hope Lost.  God uses people to build his kingdom here on earth, but the people he uses are not perfect and go through both the highs and lows of life.  In the highs, life is good, but in the lows, some of us will struggle hard with doubt and even depression, sometimes deep depression or despair.  Elijah goes through a time of despair even to the point of wanting to end his life.  How do we walk through hard times? As we go through, where is God?

This week we are starting a new series based on 2 Corinthians 4:7, Jars of Clay.  Today’s message from 2 Corinthians 4 has Paul saying “We have this treasure in jars of clay.”  When you stop and think of it, it’s pretty amazing that Jesus trusts us with the Gospel News; with sharing the Good News of Jesus with the world.  He especially uses those of us who have been broken and cracked by life; hurt and weak, often strange and odd to the world, to reveal the power of the Gospel in our lives and to invite others to accept Jesus’ love and heart renewal for themselves.  

Today we will be reflecting on the GEMS’ and their theme for this past year. We will be reflecting on 1 John 3:1-3, Loved! Our greatest desire is to be loved; if we miss out on knowing the amazing love of God for us, we will fill that empty place with something or someone else instead. We are loved so much by God that he makes us his children, a part of the family!

Easter Sunday! The church’s historical greeting on this day is: Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed! We will be reflecting on Matthew 28:1-10, He is Risen, Just as He Said. After Jesus’ crucifixion, the Jewish rulers were still afraid, afraid that something unexpected might happen to Jesus’ body.  Since they knew about Jesus’ claim that he will rise again in three days, they persuaded Pilate to post guards on Jesus’ tomb. As the saying goes, you can’t keep a good man down.  This is especially true if he’s the Son of God who has taken the sin of the world to the grave with him. What a great reason for rejoicing! 

Today the carpenter’s hands are nailed to a cross, the King of kings is crowned with thornsand wears the purple robe of mockery. Today he sets us free, himself imprisoned on a tree. Today is God’s Friday. We come in worship.

This fifth Sunday of Lent we will continue our Lenten series by reflecting on Leviticus 23:33-44 and John 7:37-43, The Feast of Tabernacles. It’s also Palm Sunday. The Feast of Tabernacles remembers the time Israel spent in the wilderness in temporary dwellings. When you journey or wander through the wilderness, especially for 40 years, thirst is a constant companion and Israel needed to depend on God to provide enough water for the entire nation every day of those 40 years! In the New Testament, Jesus invited anyone who is thirsty to come to him and drink, implying to the people at the festival, that he is from God who satisfied the thirst of their ancestors, but Jesus will provide generously: rivers of living water. 

We continue our Lenten series on the Feasts of Israel by reflecting on Leviticus 23:23-25, The Feast of Trumpets. In this Feast, the trumpets, or shofars are blown to call the people to experience God’s presence again. In the harvest, it was easy to get so caught up in the work that we can forget to remember that God is here with us and calls us to experience his presence each day. God’s presence changes us, his holiness leads him to judge our sin, but his love leads him to take our punishment on himself! We also plan to gather together in spirit and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.

We continue our Lenten series on the feasts of Israel by reflecting on Leviticus 23:15-22 and Acts 2:1-13, The Feast of Weeks-Pentecost. This is a feast that reminds us to be generous with the blessings God has given us, especially in the harvest. There are echoes to the story of Ruth and Boaz and to the coming of the Holy Spirit. It also became connected to the gift of the Law. We will explore how these events are all connected.

This Lenten season we will be reflecting on the Feasts of Israel.  We continue by reflecting on Leviticus 23:9-14, The Feast of First Fruits. This is a feast that calls us to a deep trust in God. By offering God our first-fruits, we are saying to God, “We trust you that you will provide for us and send the rain and sun as needed so our crops can grow, be harvested and our people will be able to eat.” This is also a festival of anticipation and excitement as the hard work of harvest is beginning and the fruit of the people’s labours are being realized. 

This Lenten season we will be reflecting on the Feasts of Israel.  We continue by reflecting on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Leviticus 23:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is also part of the Passover Feast and it focuses on the importance of finding the sin in our lives and then cleansing our hearts and lives of sin. This is not something we have the strength to do in our own strength, for this we need the blood of Jesus, the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  

This Lenten season we will be reflecting on the Feasts of Israel.  We will be looking at each of the feasts God calls Israel to celebrate found in Leviticus 23. We begin today with the Feast of Passover, Leviticus 23:4-5. The Feast of Passover remembers the exodus of Israel from slavery under Egypt and how the Angel of Death passed over the houses of those Israelites who painted their door frames with the blood of a lamb.  A sign that the freedom of those in the home were purchased through the blood of an innocent lamb.  The beginning of Israel claiming a new identity, one found in God rather than as slaves.  

This week Pastor Jake will lead the service while Elder August Luymes will be bringing us the Word.  We will be returning to Luke 24 and Jesus encounter with two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, focusing on what Jesus said that made their hearts burn.  

This week we are wrapping up our series on Spiritual Disciplines by reflecting on the discipline of worship and looking at Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:1-42.  Jesus tells her that a time is coming when we will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth.  What does this mean?  How can we worship in the Spirit and in truth? How does this show us who Jesus really is?  

This week we are celebrating our Friendship Ministry.  We will be reflecting on Mark 5:21-43, Face to Face with Jesus: Touching Our Lord.  This is the story of a young girl who is so sick.  Her father comes running to Jesus to heal her.  While on the way, another woman who has been sick for a really long time touches Jesus, hoping for healing.  Today we will be reflecting on Jesus as a healer, but also on asking some hard questions.  Questions like: why doesn’t Jesus heal me; am I not healed because I don’t have enough faith; How can I find peace even when I don’t get healed by Jesus?   

This week we are celebrating our Cadet ministry and inviting the Cadets and their counsellors to help lead us in worship.  We will be reflecting on Jeremiah 29:10-14, focusing on verse 12, Hi God, It’s Me.  God wants us to come and talk to him, to stay in contact with him in our day to day lives, sharing with him our day to day stuff and inviting him to be part of it with us.  Our God is also our Father and he’s always eager to hear from us.  We will be focusing on the personal nature of prayer.  

This week we are continuing to look at a number of Spiritual Disciplines as we focus this year on growing our relationship with Jesus. Richard Foster has written an important book on spiritual disciplines Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth, which will be a main reference through this series. The spiritual disciplines are spiritual practices the Church has developed over the centuries to help us develop our relationship with Jesus, to grow stronger in our faith and to intertwine what we believe with how we live. This week we continue our exploration of the spiritual disciples by reflecting on John 13:1-17 the Discipline of Service. In the discipline of service, we will be exploring our attitudes towards service. Often, we are happy to serve in areas where we feel gifted or we enjoy, but what about service that is unseen or feels like it’s below us, what is your attitude towards service then? Serving is more about attitude than it is about what we actually do. 

This week we are continuing to look at a number of Spiritual Disciplines as we focus this year on growing our relationship with Jesus. Richard Foster has written an important book on spiritual disciplines Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth, which will be a main reference through this series. The spiritual disciplines are spiritual practices the Church has developed over the centuries to help us develop our relationship with Jesus, to grow stronger in our faith and to intertwine what we believe with how we live. This week we continue our exploration of the spiritual disciples by reflecting on Matthew 4:1-11 the Discipline of Solitude by looking at the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness after spending 40 days and nights fasting alone in the wilderness. God meets us in places like the wilderness, times of solitude. Solitude gives us the space to listen more closely to God, to reflect on who we are and the lives we are living. Solitude helps us to prepare ourselves to be obedient to

This week we are continuing to look at a number of Spiritual Disciplines as we focus this year on growing our relationship with Jesus. Richard Foster has written an important book on spiritual disciplines Celebration of Disciple: the Path to Spiritual Growth, which will be a main reference through this series. The spiritual disciplines are spiritual practices the Church has developed over the centuries to help us develop our relationship with Jesus, to grow stronger in our faith and to intertwine what we believe with how we live. This week we continue our exploration of the spiritual disciples by reflecting on Acts 17:10-12 and Philippians 4:8-9, the Discipline of Study. Many people study the Bible as an interesting book of wisdom from an earlier time. The Discipline of Study seeks to learn to know God better and in knowing God better, we learn more about who He has created us to be. The Holy Spirit uses the Scriptures to then shape us more and more into who we are created to be as image bearers of God and fo

We will begin by looking at a number of Spiritual Disciplines as we focus this year on growing our relationship with Jesus.  Richard Foster has written an important book on spiritual disciplines, Celebration of Disciple: the Path to Spiritual Growth, which will be a main reference through this series.  The spiritual disciplines are spiritual practices the Church has developed over the centuries to help us develop our relationship with Jesus, to grow stronger in our faith and to intertwine what we believe with how we live.  We are beginning our journey through the spiritual disciples by reflecting on Luke 11:1-13, The Discipline of Prayer.  Prayer is the gift of communication, the opportunity to share with God what is going on in our lives and a time to listen for his quiet, gentle, or not so gentle leading in our lives.  Prayer is rooted in God’s glory and shapes us by drawing us into His presence on a regular basis 

This morning is the first Sunday after Advent, a time when the church slows down and reflects on the gift of Jesus who came to earth to become human like us.  We also look forward to Jesus’ return during Advent.  This morning we are wrapping up our journey through Revelation by reflecting on Revelation 21:1-7, Heaven and Earth Together Again.  This passage is all about hope and renewal, about victory over sin and death, and about heaven and earth coming together again, as a reversal of what happened in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden.  It’s about how history begins with chaos before creation and how Jesus brings order and peace into our chaotic lives and hearts.  There’s the picture of us being made new again, of all our hurt and brokenness being left behind as we move forward into an eternal future with Jesus healed and forgiven.  Even after Jesus returns, there is still work for us to do to continue the task of discovering and releasing the potential that God has placed in creation