Middle of Winter

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As we move into the middle of the winter season we may feel anxious, sad and even under the weather due to the wintertime blues. Despite the lack of sunshine and being cooped up indoors, as Canadians it is okay feel this way. In our humanity, we at times feel weak, weary, and overwhelmed. The good news is we don’t have to stay there because God wants us to experience His presence, love and joy. Jesus, who experienced every human condition comforts us with these words, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). May we come to Jesus, who awaits us with wide-open arms, ready to restore us to a place of health, healing, joy, peace and hope.

Love with Joy and Peace

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This weekend is when people remember the one whom they love, whether their spouse or significant other. Lets us celebrate this love with joy and peace. May our ultimate love be shown to the One who first loved us. Jesus has loved us all with an everlasting Love. Let’s contemplate all that He has done for mankind and is doing for us now. May His love for us move each of us to share Jesus with someone today and may our hearts be given to Him in complete surrender.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

My Life Today

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Today’s devotional from My Life Today quotes Ellen G. White’s writings when saying: “The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly specified in the words of Christ: When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If the sinner responds to the quickening influence of the Spirit, he will be brought to repentance and aroused to the importance of obeying the divine requirements” The Acts of the Apostles, 52. She also wrote “It is through the mighty agency of the Holy Spirit that the government of Satan is to be subdued and subjected. It is the Holy Spirit that convinces of sin and expels it from the soul by the consent of the human agent” The Review and Herald, April 25th, 1893. The Bible says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”. Gal. 5:22-25. As we come together to praise God, we invite you to allow the Holy Spirit into your life to do the work that only He can do.

A Little Hope

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I write this post with a heavy heart because this is the last post I write as the pastor of the Bronte Seventh-day Adventist church. My family and I have been so blessed to be a part of your church family! It has been a real privilege to build friendships and to work with such an amazing leadership team. We will miss you all terribly and we know that God will continue to bless you in the future. No doubt you’ve seen the news of basketball legend Kobe and his daughter who died tragically along with seven other people in the helicopter crash this past week. Some of you can identify with the pain of losing someone close to you… I think one of the things people need most when hit with a loss like that is just a little hope. A reason to believe that one day there will be something better to look forward to. Hope can go a long way when faced with deep sadness, a concept known all too well by Jesus’ disciples as they watched their Savior died one Friday afternoon. For today’s message I wanted to explore how even in those darkest moments, Jesus left behind a message of hope, a message of hope that wasn’t only for His disciples but for all His followers who face sadness and grief, a message of hope for you and me when we’re caught between tragedy and triumph.”

Opportunity to de-clutter

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This week was a busy one for my family. We are almost done packing and getting ready for the truck to come and pick up our things on Tuesday. Moving isn’t the funniest thing in the world but I’ve learned to appreciate at least one aspect of it, the opportunity to de-clutter. It always amazes me how many things I carry with me from place to place that I have absolutely no use for. I was thinking that there’s a similarity there for our spiritual and emotional lives as well. God calls us to give Him our burdens and sometimes it’s a good thing to catalogue the things you carry and see if maybe it’s time to let go of a few things. Take this opportunity at the beginning of 2020 to de-clutter your life and give God the things you can’t handle. Today we are blessed to have Andrew Conroy sharing a message with us. He’s the head elder at the Willowdale church and a good friend to our family. We also have a baby dedication today for baby Eric! I’m glad you decided to spend the day with us, wishing God’s blessings as we worship Him together today.”

How is your 2020 going so far?

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If you’ve been participating in the 10 Days of Prayer that started this past week, you’ve probably been as blessed as I have. Hearing the testimonies of how God is working in people’s lives, reading and discussing the word of God, and spending time in prayer together have been such a positive experience. Today we’re joining one man’s journey to discovering truth about 2,000 years ago. I chose this topic today for two reasons. 1. A few weeks ago I said I would share Nicodemus’ story with you because it’s one of my favorites in the Bible… so I’m keeping my promise. 2. It seems that there’s a lot of interest in the word “truth”, especially since Trump became the US President… Things are happening in the world, including last week’s plane that went down in Iran, and people just want to know the truth about what happened to those – and, closer to home, the many Canadians – who lost their lives. In our scripture reading today, Jesus claims that He is the Truth! How interesting that we can come to know the truth by getting to know a person, not just facts. This is the invitation Jesus made to a man named Nicodemus a long time ago… one He continues to extend to you and me today!

Welcome to 2020

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Welcome to 2020! I’m excited to see what God has in store for each one of us over this next year. For some it will bring some big changes, while for others, maybe the same challenges as before… Whatever it is, just remember that God is with you and He will never leave you. Trust in His promises and believe that one day soon He’s coming again to take us home. Here at Bronte we’ve been working hard to provide an excellent way for you to start the year off focusing on deepening your relationship with God. That’s why we will be joining the world church from Jan 8th to 18th for the 10 days of prayer. This will be a time of spiritual renewal, connecting with church friends, and a chance to learn more about the work of the Holy Spirit. Please make sure you’re a part of this 10-day journey, you won’t regret it, in fact it will recharge your spiritual life in a big way. Today we will be looking at a spiritual discipline that isn’t talked about very often, but we need to talk about it today because our 10 days of prayer begins with a day of fasting. We’re glad you’re here!

Last Sabbath

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Can you believe this is the last Sabbath before we enter into a new year?! I hope your Christmas was great and you had a chance to make wonderful memories this year. Alina and I had an amazing time helping distribute clothing and food to the poor last Saturday evening and I want to say a huge thank you to the group that came out and to those of you who donated clothing items. As we look ahead to the new year, I challenge each of us to focus on what are the most important things in our lives and find a way to grow in those areas. God loves each of you very much and one way He wants all of us to grow in a deeper relationship with Him. What can you start this week that helps you become closer to God this year? If you don’t know how to start, not to worry because we have a special 10 days of prayer planned, starting on Wednesday January 8th, to help facilitate a step in the right direction. Come out and be blessed! Today we’re also excited to have another baby dedication. We’re excited to have baby Eli Solis dedicated today and pray that God will bless him and his family.

Last Sabbath before Christmas

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Today is the last Sabbath before Christmas. I hope you’re done your shopping, but if you’ve left everything to the last minute, the good news is you still have a couple days to get it done. Let me ask you a question… What is one present you would like to receive the most? If money wasn’t an issue, what would your answer be? What if I asked the same question in a slightly different way? What if I were to ask you, what is the one gift you would like to give someone you loved, if money wasn’t an issue? What would you give them? Today, for our annual family Christmas program, we have a few families who will be blessing us with their gifts, before I will wrap things up with a short devotional thought on the questions I just asked. We also have a baby dedication and a cheque to present to an organization doing great things in the community. May you be blessed as we worship God together at Bronte today and may God bless you and your family this Christmas holiday season.

How was your week?

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How was your week? It’s amazing that the temperature can fluctuate so much from one day to the next. At the beginning of the week at our place it was +6 but by Wednesday it was -11 with the windchill. Spiritually speaking, we all have our ups and downs. Some days it feels like we’re warm in our faith and God seems near and everything is going well. Then there are other times when it feels like our relationship with God is colder than we’d like and we don’t hear His voice. One lesson the Christmas season teaches us is that regardless of how we feel toward God, God never changes how He feels towards us. John 3:16 starts with the words “For God so loved…” God has and will always love us. In fact, He loved us so much that His son Jesus was born here on earth and grew up to show us what God was really like and His life was marked by a humble love and sacrifice. This is what we celebrate at Christmas time! For our service today, we extend a warm welcome to the Bells of Bowmanville, the hand bell choir of the Bowmanville SDA Church under the direction of J. C. Coolen, who will lead us in our worship service this morning. May your hearts be warmed through their ministry of music.