This week @ Amberlea Church July 27th 2011

Now that the extreme heat of last week is only a memory, I trust you all get a chance these beautiful days to enjoy our incredible weather. Now if we could just get some nighttime showers to save the lawns, so much the better.

Here is your weekly update:

1. Food Bank Offering - Thank you for your donations this summer. Especially thanks to those of you I saw over at the Pickering Town Centre Farmer's Market, putting donations into the Pickering Cares bin. In the first day of operation, we collected 192 food items. For the next few weeks at Amberlea we are going to focus on pasta sauce and cake mixes. 

2. Prayer Requests - Please pray for Simon Coolman's mom in Trinidad. She is seriously ill. Also remember my brother Ray who gets some important test results tomorrow. Keep Rudy in your prayers as he faces more surgery and treatment. Please bring the whole congregation before our Heavenly Father. It seems a week never goes by without someone sharing with me a deep burden; whether it be health, finances, marriage, loneliness or anxiety. 

3. This Sunday - We are continuing in our series "When God says "__________". This week may be the toughest week to preach. What happens when He says nothing? What do we do when our prays seem to fall on deaf ears or bounce back from the ceiling? Where is God when we can't feel His presence? Join us if you can. We had a great summer turn out last Sunday which is such an encouragement to all of us that participate.

May the good Lord bless you and keep you until we meet again.

This week @ Amberlea Church July 21st 2011

I trust you are somewhere cool today on the hottest day in memory. Here is your weekly update.

1. Food Bank Offering - We will continue to bring in cake, muffin and cooking mixes (boxed)  for the next week. 

2. Prayer Requests - We especially are praying for folks that have important tests and appointments this week. Also remember to pray for spouses that have been dealing with ill partners for extended periods of time. May Gods grace be evident to them.

3. This Sunday - We are continuing in our series "When God Says _______". This week is another tough one: When God Says "Wait". How do we know that God's timing is better than ours? How do we know He cares? Hope to see you Sunday

This week @ Amberlea Church July 14th 2011

Food Bank Offering - They are requesting boxes of cake mix, muffin mix and cookie mix over the next few weeks. 

Prayer Requests - Thanksgiving for Maureen's report of being 100% cancer clear.

                     Continuing prayer for Rudy as he faces continuing challenges of a serious nature

Claudette's co-worker having brain surgery and her young family

Vicki's friend starting Chemo again.

My brother Ray facing tests Thursday.

Our church's vitality during the summer months including youth relationships

This Sunday - We begin a new series on God answering prayer. The first one is a challenging message to deliver.The Bible gives some great examples. "When God says, "No." If you can't come Sunday, remember that the messages are posted on our web-site early each week.

May we remember each other in prayer

Malachi Day 22

Malachi 4:4-6 (The Message)

 ⁴"Remember and keep the revelation I gave through my servant Moses, the revelation I commanded at Horeb for all Israel, all the rules and procedures for right living.
 ^5-6"But also look ahead: I'm sending Elijah the prophet to clear the way for the Big Day of God—the decisive Judgment Day! He will convince parents to look after their children and children to look up to their parents. If they refuse, I'll come and put the land under a curse."

    As we come to the end of Malachi, you might wonder how God would sign off before 400 odd years of silence. Now you know. He first encourages them to keep the promises they made to God in the time of Moses. They received the law with joy and committed themselves to it.

    

    Then God directs them to look to the future for the Day of the Lord. As best as we can understand it, God is saying to look for the new Elijah (John the Baptist) to clear the way for the Messiah (Jesus). Then God spells out the most interesting result of all of this: The parents and children will be convinced to be in proper relationship with each other.

    

    Was this all that God wanted? Why didn't He just say so. Why all the accusations and evidences? Here is what I think. (I would love to hear your theory)

    

    All of Malachi has been about parent -child relationship. We are the children and we have stopped honouring our Heavenly Father and treating Him like we really look up to Him. In turn, He has has promised to look after us, His children, but acknowledged that blessings are held back until we return to our promises.

    

    The key is that through all this He has been faithful. His love has never wavered. We limit the benefit of the relationship by our unfaithfulness. In a way it is parallel to the story of the Prodigal son. The Father's heart aches for us to be home again, under His roof.

Malachi Day 21

Malachi 4 (The Message)

The Sun of Righteousness Will Dawn

 ^1-3 "Count on it: The day is coming, raging like a forest fire. All the arrogant people who do evil things will be burned up like stove wood, burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ash— a black day. But for you, sunrise! The sun of righteousness will dawn on those who honor my name, healing radiating from its wings. You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking. And you'll tromp on the wicked. They'll be nothing but ashes under your feet on that Day." 

God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.

  God through Malachi is continuing to show that it really makes a difference to those who follow Him in obedience. There will be a Judgement. There will be consequences. There will be life and death.

There will be either great joy or something to fear with all our hearts. It will be the greatest day we have ever experienced or the worst. How ironic that we should be remembering two receptions that Jesus received in Jerusalem over the next 10 days. First, on Palm Sunday, he was received with joy. Not a week later, he was received with the call to crucify Him.

To many, Jesus is Saviour and Lord. To many, He is rejected: by people who don't believe, people who think they can save themselves, people who want to tell God whom to save and whom to damn, people who won't allow for Jesus to be the way, the truth and the life, people who create God and faith in their own image, minds and heart to fit themselves.

John 1:12 (New International Version, ©2011)

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

Malachi Day 20

Malachi 3:16-18 (The Message)

 ¹⁶Then those whose lives honored God got together and talked it over. God saw what they were doing and listened in. A book was opened in God's presence and minutes were taken of the meeting, with the names of the God-fearers written down, all the names of those who honored God's name.

 ^17-18God-of-the-Angel-Armies said, "They're mine, all mine. They'll get special treatment when I go into action. I treat them with the same consideration and kindness that parents give the child who honors them. Once more you'll see the difference it makes between being a person who does the right thing and one who doesn't, between serving God and not serving him."


    It doesn't seem to matter what part of Biblical history and I assume all history and even the present, that there are those who are faithful. We want to honour God with our lives, but we can so easily get caught in the same traps as Malachi's people. We need to be reminded of who God is and how important honouring Him is.

    When even a small group of people begin to focus on what they need to do and not what they can get away with, God blesses them. When God's favour is on them, there is growth spiritually and usually in every other way too. It is all part of loving the Lord our God with all of our hearts. It is acknowledging Him in all we do. It is honouring Him with our best and first, long before we look after ourselves.

    We are getting close to the end of this study. Sometimes Malachi feels like sand paper on tender skin. The most important thing to ask is this: "What would God have each of us learn that we can change in our lives today to honour Him?"

    Blessing

    Fred

fred@pastor.com

Malachi Day 19

Malachi 3:13-15 (The Message)

The Difference Between Serving God and Not Serving Him

 ¹³God says, "You have spoken hard, rude words to me.   "You ask, 'When did we ever do that?'
 ^14-15"When you said, 'It doesn't pay to serve God. What do we ever get out of it? When we did what he said and went around with long faces, serious about God-of-the-Angel-Armies, what difference did it make? Those who take life into their own hands are the lucky ones. They break all the rules and get ahead anyway. They push God to the limit and get by with it.'"

    God makes another charge against His people. "You have been rude and disrespectful to me." God's people are certain they have never done that, so they aggressively challenge back, asking for evidence. God, of course, is ready for them. Here is His evidence:

1. They question if it was worth it to be one of the ones that served God.

2. They question whether their total obedience, done grimly and seriously made any difference,

3. They envy the ones who rebelled against God.

4. They envy the ones who broke all the rules and prosper.

5. They envy the ones who pushed God to the limit and got away with it.

    God has already shown His evidence that His people do not obey Him and do not serve Him. He has shown their worship to be false and their sacrifices to be insufficient. He has shown their robbery and lying. And yet, they accuse God.

    The challenge is now fully in front of us. Are we growing into the kind of God followers Malachi is describing or are we growing into the kind of God followers that honour Him with our lives, our service and our resources? He is not going to accept anything less. The stakes are high.