Today we begin a new quarter and our theme is “Closer to Each Other”. The goal with this series is to explore Biblical concepts of fellowship and communion. This is a very important topic in the life of a church family. As you will notice in our scripture reading, the author of Hebrews first tells us to, “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” Heb 10:23 This is very important but it also explicitly commands us not to “give up meeting together.” Heb 10:25 I believe meeting together at church and small groups during the week is more than just a time we can study about and worship God. It is also a time we can connect with fellow believers and share pieces of our journey with each other, to encourage one another in our Christian journeys. One activity that encourages this time of sharing effectively is having a meal together. That is why the family life team is creating opportunities like the activity we are participating in today to simply encourage that time of sharing and fellowship that is needed in a healthy and vibrant church family. Welcome, and may God bless you as we learn and participate in that fellowship experience this quarter.

Today, as part of this year’s vision of Disicpliship for the Seventh-day Adventist Conference in Ontario, they’re holding a ministries convention in Richmond Hill called DiscipleSHIFT. Some of our ministry leaders along with myself are attending the various seminars which are designed to educate and train leaders in different ministries about what discipleship means or looks like in our churches and the 21st century. What do you think of when you hear the word discipleship? Do you think of discipline or following Jesus or something else? When I think of discipleship, of being a follower of Jesus, one common theme always comes to mind. It is found in Jesus’ words in Luke 9:23, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” To me, this is the essence of discipleship. This week during prayer meeting we had a great discussion about what it means to be consumed by Christ and it got me thinking about what we understand when we think of the term disciple. Luke 9 is both a reality check and a litmus test for the Christian and lets us know that perhaps there needs to be a “shift” in our understanding of discipleship. Our speaker today is one of our own members who recently became a father, Ken Urizar. He’s a very gifted Sabbath school teacher and I’m sure his sermon will challenge and inspire us as we discover the topic of “Sonship”

Well, it’s that time of year again! This Sunday we lose one hour of sleep in the morning as we set our clocks forward. But even though this may bother some, I love it because it means that spring, warmer weather and longer days are just around the corner. Not to mention that we won’t have to drive to and from work in the dark. As a pastor, I noticed that many stories about God in the Bible have the same feeling. To some, the same story can be great but for others, bothersome to say the least. For Christians, we read a story about God and we accept it because we know what God is like. But what about those who don’t know the God of the Bible? What happens when they read a story where God’s actions don’t make sense, stories like the one we’ll be looking at today. Let me ask you, what do you think of when you read the story of the flood in the Bible? What kind of image do you get of God in that story? As we move through the topic of getting closer to God this quarter, I’m glad you came to Bronte today because even though on the surface the story of the flood can strike us as odd or even downright troubling, we will learn something new about the character of God.