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good news
Seeing tragedy in his childhood challenged his views about life. Facing tragedy as an adult challenged the values that he lived for. And addressing tragedy in his life has given him the satisfaction that his heart longed for. Let me share three things I learned about tragedy from Sujo John’s life.
I’m not a Jew. But I do love the Jewish Scriptures. And I believe they contain a compelling reason to read what Christians call the New Testament, and it’s a reason that’s often overlooked.
Painful feelings of disappointment and hopelessness can force us to re-examine our goals and the basis of our hope. Just doubling down on our hope and trying harder isn’t necessarily the solution.
With one of our church members in palliative care right now, I’ve spent a lot of time there in recent days. The view of life from the palliative care wing changes you. It reorients you to what life is really all about. Stephen Covey became famous for telling people to “begin with the end in mind.” We’re so isolated from opportunities to consider the end of our lives, though, that we seldom let it deeply affect us. It’s a perspective I don’t want to lose, and yet if I don’t pause to reflect on it, I know that I probably will. Let me share a few of the lessons.
On Sunday, the team responsible for our weekly children’s ministries gathered for a BBQ and celebration of God’s goodness over the past year. As part of our time together, we discussed some quotes from Samuel Williamson’s book, “Is Sunday School Destroying Our Kids? How Moralism Suffocates Grace.” For those of you with children at Grace, don’t worry: our Sunday School isn’t destroying them! But Williamson argues that when we get Sunday School wrong – and it’s easy to do – it has the potential to destroy our children’s faith. Let me explain why.
Last week, my vacation started and ended with camping trips but in between I had the privilege of being a part of a birthday party that encouraged my faith and perspective about life.
Remi Adeleke has done it all: scam artist, drug dealer, Navy SEAL, and actor. But it’s not so much his resume that fascinates me as what God has done in his life and what his life teaches me about how I can grow as a person. I’d encourage you to listen to Remi tell his story at the following link:
https://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/remi-adeleke2/
Let me share some of the things I learned from his story.
Last fall we investigated the possibility of running a multi-sport summer day camp in partnership with Scripture Union in 2018. In the end, we decided to postpone plans this year because of unknowns surrounding completion of the parking lot construction. One of the components of the plan however was to apply to the Canada Summer Jobs Program. Hundreds of churches across the country apply for this grant each year for help in hiring students to run various community outreach programs. This year, the government added a new twist however. Organizations that apply are now required to affirm that the student job and their core mandate respect certain values determined by the federal government – including their position on abortion, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. The application says that it is intended to prevent youth from being exposed to organizations that may promote positions contrary to the government’s values.
The shortest summary of the gospel I know is “God made it. We broke it. Jesus fixed it. By faith I receive it.” Each of these statements tries to summarize an important part of the good news announcement of the gospel. Even more basic are the four words: “God. We. Jesus. Me.”
It’s easy to conclude a person is hopeless to change. We often assume that people who aren’t like us would never listen to us. The story of Derek Black shows us, that’s not rue. If Derek could change, anyone can. And the steps that led to his transformation give us hints as to how we can be help effect change in our culture today.
