July 2011 - Relationships R God

Relationships R God

Greetings to a people who are growing in their ability to share life and love with each other and everyone they meet. I truly believe God has us in a time of growing in truthfulness and transparency with each other in the midst of love and grace. This is how Jesus came to the earth and modelled life for us. (John 1:14)

I know that making a statement like this can raise objections in our hearts and minds to the validity of it. You should notice that I said that we are growing in this. Unfortunately, growing in something usually involves growing pains. As I have watched relationships since our fast, I have noticed how we are being drawn into transparency and truth about ourselves and others. This happens as relationships draw closer. If you are married, you may have noticed this simply by starting to live with someone you thought you really knew but are now discovering even more about as you move past the wedding. The need for more grace is evident. We will need more grace for each other as we progress in relationship.

The beauty is that working through this will bring us into closer relationship with each other and correspondingly into closer relationship with God. This is what I believe Paul meant when he wrote: "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19) This is why the two greatest commandments are linked together—loving God and your neighbour. (Luke 10:27)

We are on a journey of greater relationship. This is in the plan and purpose of God. I welcome it and bless us all in it. Let’s have grace for each other as we move forward together.

Loving you all as we journey together,

Pastor Merril

June 2011 - Expecting an Awesome Fast

Praise the Lord!!!

What an awesome opportunity this month to pursue God through fasting and prayer.

I have been excited, inspired and encouraged to see this church responding to God as one body.  In our celebration services you are choosing to worship Him together—embracing each person’s uniqueness while seeking him with one heart.  You are not distracted by each other; but are encouraged by each other.  God is now calling us deeper into that pursuit.

Fasting & prayer is in resurgence in the evangelical Christian community. Somehow this was lost along the way. Whatever the reason, it is being brought back to its rightful place.

I am saying this because I hope that we don’t think the Upper Room Fast is simply a “one off.”  While this is related to the 10 days that the disciples prayed after Jesus’ ascension, it is also a rebirth as with the day the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church in fullness.  This is a corporate fast and we will have more of them.  However, it is also an individual fast and I believe you will be inspired to further fasts throughout the year.

Fasting and prayer should be considered a spiritual discipline. It is a spiritual activity. While it is definitely physical in its expression, a Biblical fast is not simply the removal of food or activity.  Without the spiritual component, it is simply a denial for emotional or physical reasons (e.g. fasting for weight loss & health).  It is also a discipline, so there will be a need to engage your will in following the Lord.  You will have opportunities to choose between soul and spirit—between the pull of your flesh and the pull of the Holy Spirit. Disciplines done in conjunction with the Holy Spirit strengthen your will in unity with God as opposed to simply strengthening your own will and then you later find that the “arm of your flesh will fail you.”

I bless you in this journey. Fasting is a journey of relationship with God. You may stumble along the way—don’t give up. You may find times where it is difficult—we are in this together, so call someone else who is fasting for support.  As we journey through this fast and future ones, we will find ourselves propelled into God’s destiny for us, both as a church and as individuals.

Be sure to pick up a copy of the “Practical Guide to Fasting” and the “Fast Commitment.”  You can also find these on the church website.  I am also keeping a daily diary as we go through the fast (the link is also on the church website) and hope you are encouraged by it.

Loving you all,

Pastor Merril

May 2011 - We Are a Body

As I was pondering what to share with you this month, I was awed at the goodness of God and how we have grown over the last year as a church.  I believe we have grown much in the way of spiritual maturity and in awareness and cooperation with the Holy Spirit.  We have also grown in numbers.  Our average attendance since this time last year has doubled.

With this kind of rapid growth, we are also experiencing growing pains.  We have many new people who call this their home and want to be a part of this body in a significant way.  There are many who are finding their place within the body while others are still searching or are waiting.  As we continue to grow, we will need more to be finding their places of expressing the love of Christ in our midst.

Paul the apostle wrote in Romans 12:4-8

4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

I want to encourage you all to discover and develop your place in the body.  As we have grown the need has increased for more people to take their places in the children and youth ministries along with our need for ushers and greeters.  You will understand if getting involved in ministries to children and youth will require being at the church for a longer period of time so we can build relationship and get to know you.  Other opportunities are quickly available for you to function in your gifts – prayer, greeting, worship, etc.  Also, sometimes you can begin developing your gifts in one area of ministry and then later see that gift expressed within another area of ministry.

If you are new here or haven’t been developing and displaying your placement within the body, please speak with a pastor, elder or ministry head.

Together we will come into a fuller expression of the goodness and love of God.

Travelling with you all,

Pastor Merril

April 2011 - Freedom, More Than a Cliche

Freedom!!!

Well, that should be a very familiar word around here.  And it is.  The question I have been pondering is: “Has freedom become a cliché?”  Have we become so familiar with the word that we have lost the essence of it and what we are seeking to be as a church?

Galatians 5:13 states: “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty …”

If you have ever wondered at what you are called to as a believer, this is part of your calling.  We are all called to liberty.  It is part of our witness and testimony in the earth that we should live in freedom.  We are freed from the bondage of living according to rules and regulations that are dead in religion.  As Paul writes elsewhere, we have been made “… sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Cor. 3:6)  We have been called into a freedom empowered by the Spirit of the Living God.  Not only have we been called into this freedom but also we are to be ministers who bring others into this same freedom.  It is an ever-increasing freedom that is supposed to one day be such a revelation of Christ that creation moves into the liberty of the sons of God. (Rom. 8:21)  It’s a freedom that moves from our “new creation” spirits through our souls to our bodies and the natural world.  It is as it is in heaven, so being on the earth. (Matt. 6:10)

As you may have noticed, I only gave part of that verse from Galatians.  The rest of the verse goes: “… only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Gal. 5:13)  The freedom that is at work in us is for the expression of God’s love.  I will not quote the rest of Galatians 5 here, but I would encourage you to read it and glean what is freedom and what is not.  Paul wrote that he was constrained by the love of God. (2 Cor. 5:14)  Paul also wrote, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful.” (1 Cor. 6:12)  So, the absolute freedom we gain in Christ comes with boundaries.  Boundaries founded on the love of God and concern for others.

We, therefore, have this challenge before us: to become completely free to the point where we have the ability to give up our freedoms for the sake of others.  We are pressing into such freedom that it impacts everything around us.

So, then, this is once again our battle cry and our surrender … FREEDOM!!!

Journeying with you,

Pastor Merril

March 2011 - Grace in Which We Stand

Greetings blessed of God.

I cannot help but get more and more excited at all Father is doing.  Everywhere I look I see the hand of our Father.

This month we have a great opportunity to grow in the area of walking in the blessing of our Father.  I would encourage you to take advantage of this.  Learn the blessings God designed you to both receive and give.  Freely receive so that you may freely give.

While there is much that could be said about blessing, I have something else burning in my heart that I hope you can grasp.  I feel as though, like Paul, I have a “stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit.” (Eph. 3:2, NAB)  I will do my best in this little space to convey it.

What I have to share with you is from Romans 5:1-2

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Rom. 5:1-2, NKJV)

Now, if we have fully grasped the complete justification that is ours through faith, then we have access through Christ into an amazing grace.  This grace is not something that is strived for or sought after – we are standing in it.  There is a progression here.  By faith we appropriate the justification that accomplishes and ensures our complete access into this grace in which we stand.

Now, if we fully grasp the grace in which we are standing, we can move forward in to the triumphant boasting in the hopeful assurance of encountering the glory of God!  I truly believe we are standing in an amazing time of grace that is moving us from glory to glory into the full image of the Son of God. (2 Cor. 3:18)  This grace we are standing in is not simply God’s favour but is God’s enabling power.  Paul understood this when he wrote, “… I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (1 Cor. 15:10, NKJV)

The grace of God is at work in our midst.  We are being empowered in this hour to enter into a fullness we have never experienced.  Let us put our faith in Him who justifies us and cleanses us from all sin.  His love and grace is overcoming many obstacles.  Let us stand firmly in the grace of God and move forward into His glory together.

Loving you all,

Pastor Merril

February 2011 - Accountable to Your Future

Recent events have brought to my mind the idea of accountability.  Jean-Claude Duvalier is brought up on charges in Haiti but will he actually be held accountable for not just the funds that disappeared but for the people that disappeared under his rule.  Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country of Tunisia after the people rose up to finally protest his long-standing dictatorship.  And now Egyptians are protesting Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30 years in power and what it has or has not done for Egypt.

As Christians we often have this internal barometer of justice and of right and wrong.  Whether we base it on biblical, societal or personal grounds, we have a desire for proper accountability.  This can happen closer to home in more commonplace things like snow removal from our streets.  Edmonton’s mayor apologized for the city’s current response to the snowfalls we have had.

We desire to hold people and governments accountable for past actions.  We try to bring accountability for current actions.  However, I believe that we, as followers of Christ who seek first His kingdom and righteousness, should be most interested in an accountability to the future.

We need to be living with our eyes focussed forwards towards our destiny.  It’s the difference between who I am today and who God intends me to be that needs to be worked on.  Not in the faithless manner of being bogged down in the present or the past but with the faith-filled belief in a God who can bring me into my destiny.

I am not saying that people do not have consequences for their actions.  Nor am I saying that accountability is wrong.  I am saying that as Christians who believe in forgiveness of sins (1 Jn. 1:9) and that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1; cf. Jn. 3:17), that we need to have a different focus.

Let’s consider some people from the Bible.  David is a man who committed adultery and then murder to try to cover it up.  Abraham lied on numerous occasions about his relationship with Sarah, even so far as to allow her to be in compromising places.  Paul was directly involved or oversaw the killing of many Christians.  And yet we hold these men in high regard for their faith and walk with God.

Future accountability is something I will develop to a better extent in a Sunday morning message.  For now I would like you to consider some Scriptures.  Consider Paul’s encouragement: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and ​w​reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:13-14, NKJV)  The writer of Hebrews, after spending considerable time speaking of faith and the heroes of the faith, wrote: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (Heb. 12:1, NLT)  Runners in a race focus on the goal and, in context, the sin that so easily trips people up is unbelief or lack of faith.

I want to encourage you to walk with a greater sense of destiny in these days.  Be more focussed on who you are becoming than who you currently are.  Don’t be tripped up by a faithless view of the present but be lifted up by a faith-filled view of your present and your future.

Journeying together with you,

Pastor Merril

January 2011 - Spiritual Nostalgia

Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2011!  I am excited for what God is doing and has yet to do among us.  As we move into this new year and into the new things God is doing, there is a great caution I must share with you all.

Nostalgia is the nemesis of the new.  So long as we look at the past as being “the glory days” or “the golden days” of the church, we will not embrace what God desires to reveal and do both today and tomorrow.  Nostalgia is defined as a “bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.” (American Heritage Dictionary)  The word is derived from two Greek words “nostos,” which means “returning home” and “algos,” meaning “pain” or “ache.”  So, we use it today to mean an ache or pain for something of the past that gives us that “home” feeling.  The problem for the Christian is that “home” is not found in the past, but in the future.  And while “nemesis” refers to a Greek god of retribution and vengeance, it has come to also be defined as, “the inescapable or implacable agent of someone's or something's downfall.” (New Oxford American Dictionary)  What I am saying then is that nostalgia makes it impossible to embrace and enter the new.

An example from the Israelites can be found in Ezra 3:11-13.  The foundation for the new temple had been laid after they returned from Babylon and many cheered about the foundation, but many also wept who had seen the temple Solomon had built.  Those who wept compared the size of the new foundation with the old temple.  They were looking at the external situation of the present and longing for the past.  But, how did God see things?  Haggai 2:1-8 shows that God knew how people saw the new temple being built and compared it to the old one.  However, of the new temple He said: “The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former….” (v.8)

If we really want this new year to be filled with new things from God, then we have to remove nostalgia from our thoughts and emotions.  We have to let go of the past and believe that God has a “future and a hope” for us. (Jeremiah 29:11)  While we may learn principles and lessons from the past, they do not always apply directly to the present or future.  Would you go to a doctor who believes that the glory days of medicine were 200 years ago and acts accordingly?  Would you rather worship to Gregorian Chants on Sunday morning?

Let’s enter the new year like it’s new.  Let’s embrace the future without the baggage of trying to relive the past.  Let’s find that the latter glory is really greater than the former.

Bless you all,

Pastor Merril