Church Family Update - October 22, 2020

First, some good news:

This Sunday is one of the best Sunday’s of the year: It’s Reformation Sunday!! We will be hearing from a guest speaker who did not live during the Reformation itself but was a child of the Reformation. John G. Paton (1824-1907) was a missionary to the New Hebrides which is a collection of South Pacific Islands near New Zealand (these Islands are called Vanuatu today). Paton’s autobiography is a thrilling adventure story of courage, faith and grace and I look forward to hearing his story on Sunday.  

(I’m told he has shaved his beard since this picture was taken)

A prayer request:

I am reminded that things are extremely volatile in South Africa right now. Farmers in particular are being targeted by attacks and this week 247,105 acres of farmland was burned to the ground. Let’s pray for peace, safety and a miraculous, God-centred resolution to this tense situation. 

A Devotional Thought:

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us.” 1 Samuel 7:12

The one Sunday last month that I was in Wisconsin I couldn’t bring myself to watch the Ebenezer live-stream because I had prerecorded the sermon and I really didn’t want to see myself preach. So I went to a little secluded spot on the shores of Lake Michigan and held my own worship service. And while I was there I restocked my Ebenezer baptism rocks. (Hopefully I'll be able to begin using them again soon!) 

Perhaps during these uncertain times we could all use an Ebenezer rock. As you know, “Ebenezer” means “stone of help” and in the Bible an Ebenezer functioned as a memorial to something that God had done. The reason that Ebenezer’s are important is because it is by looking back at the wondrous works of God that we find stability, peace and comfort in our current circumstances. By remembering what God has done we remind ourselves that we are not alone and we are loved by God today. And that gives us faith, hope and courage about what God will do. 

A simple stone can do all that. If you allow the stone to point the eyes of your faith to the glory, power and love of a God who loved us enough to send His only Son to come and be with us and die for us and rise again, defeating death on our behalf. 

John Newton wrote a hymn called “Begone Unbelief” that captures what I’m trying to express. The third verse goes like this:

His love in time past forbids me to think

He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink

Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review

Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through

So the next time you feel despair, doubt or anxiety creeping in, raise an Ebenezer. And if anyone needs their own Ebenezer stone, I brought enough back this time that even the adults can have one if they want one! Just let me know. 

May you find peace, comfort and joy today by remembering the wondrous works of God in the past.

Pastor Jason