Care Close to Home – Stop the Clot!

Data can be manipulated to give a certain result. This has been made apparent in the recent actions of the St. Lawrence Parks Commission in its handling of the Aultsville station train display disposition. The […]

Clergy, lunch and so much more…

Last Wednesday, I had lunch with a group of clergy. Clergy are an interesting bunch.

On the first Wednesday of each month the ministers and pastors of South Dundas get together. Over lunch we do some business, discuss issues of concern to all our churches, plan events and actives that we do together and enjoy each other’s company.

We share concerns over the state of the church in the world today and commiserate about congregational challenges. 

We laugh. We shake our heads. We share stories of struggle and faith, and we celebrate the power of Jesus Christ to bring hope and new life. We see it happening in our community and world even today.

For me, the great joy and inspiration that comes from our time as clergy together is a profound sense of hope and encouragement. 

I can tell you the ministers and pastors in our communities deeply care for people and passionately give themselves in the service of Jesus Christ.

And for me that gives rise to a tremendous sense of hope and encouragement. 

And as I was thinking about this, I was struck by how we all need hope and encouragement, and how we can all be hope and encouragement to others.

The Season of Lent is about half way through. Lent is a season of preparation for Easter.  Lent is a time of discipline and commitment. We know well of the Lenten tradition of giving something up. In Lent accompanying the self-denial of giving something up the ancient church encouraged people to replace what was given up with some sort of spiritual activity.

And maybe half way through this season of Lent, we can give thanks to God for the hope and encouragement that comes to us in many ways.  And maybe we can commit ourselves to be agents of hope and encouragement.

So why not give ourselves to offer an expression of encouragement to someone each day up until Easter.  A word of grace, and act of kindness, a gesture of love, a simple expression of encouragement is all it takes. 

We all know what such things have done in our lives. Imagine what such things can do in the lives of those we meet during the next month or so. 

So there’s the challenge. It is not too late to take something of Lent into our everyday lives and bring hope and encouragement to others. And in that they and we will come to experience the presence and the blessing of God in new and exciting ways. 

For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ/who died for us, so that we may live with him/Therefore encourage one another and build up each other…       

 1 Thess 5:9-11 NSRV

Rev. Geoff Howard, Knox 

Presbyterian, Iroquois

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Are You a Faithful Church Member?

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. 

(Hebrews 10:24-25)

It “is the manner of some” Christians to forsake (enkataleipo; abandon or desert) the services and meetings of the local Church. “Manner” (ethos) in this verse refers to customary behavior or habits.  Some Christians, willfully and habitually, avoid services and meetings of the local Church. 

These Christians assume the right to determine for themselves whether they go to Church, on the bases of personal preference or convenience. Where the Bible has made God’s will known, choosing otherwise is a choice to disobey God’s word. (see v.26)

According to this passage, to forsake the assemblies of the Church is a refusal to participate in the love and good works designed to happen there. There are aspects of love and good works that cannot occur apart from our involvement in the services and meetings of the local Church. 

The God kind of love is unique, in that it is placed in the heart by the Holy Spirit, only when a person becomes a Christian. (Romans 5:5) This love is modeled for us by Jesus, when He sacrificed His living and life for our salvation. This love is unselfish and focused on the needs of others.

Good  works (kalos ergon) in our text, is the outworking of such love. By definition these are “morally excellent works that one is enabled and obligated to do by virtue of being created in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:10) Therefore avoidance of Church services and meetings is a violation of the nature and purpose of being “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” 

Our text calls us to “consider one another.” As I am considering others, others are considering me. This is how the God kind of love is designed to work in the Church. This consideration (katanoeo) is a caring awareness and regard for others, that looks for the opportunity to be a blessing, in word and deed. (1 John 3:16-19)

We consider one another in this way when we respect the vision of Christ for our participation in the services and meetings of the local Church. (Ephesians 4:1-16) It is in our assembling together as a Church that we “exhort one another.” The term translated “exhort,” parakaleo in the Greek text, means to come alongside of one another, to aid, help, comfort, and encourage one another. 

Attendance in local Church services and meetings is necessary if we are to be faithful to the model of Church presented to us in the Bible; a model of love and unity. And as we proceed toward the “Day of the Lord” this model becomes increasingly important.

We can only disobey God’s word to our own hurt, so let us obey the Scriptures in this matter; demonstrating our true discipleship and love for Jesus by assembling with the Church faithfully. (John 8:31; 14:23) 

If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. – John 13:17

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