To God’s Beloved At Cloverdale Baptist Church:
It is good to be a part of the family of God.
We suffer with those who suffer, so please be in prayer for the churches in Ukraine and Russia, that they would stay Gospel focused and shine at such a time as this! WE JOIN THEM IN THEIR STRUGGLE BY PRAYING FOR THEM. Thank you to all who took the time to join us in prayer for them on Sunday, corporate prayer is one of the highlights of our being a church family together, and well worth our time now, and in eternity.
The past few years have been difficult, and as we near what appears to be a new start at normalcy I am encouraged. The world is not a friendly place in a fallen world, and that is to be expected…what encourages me is the desire of God’s people to be driven and defined by their relationship with Him, and live lives of worship not distraction. That is where authenticity, significance and security is found in unity because of our common LORD. This is our time to shine as the light of the world and display the depth of our relationship with God by our fixation with Him, our love for one another, and our desire to serve others in humility. Let us stand out for the right reasons!
How do we do this? Great question, thank you for asking :)
How do we take the next steps in our church family so that we are delighted in God and a delight to Him, as we pursue a new normal that is so much closer to Him than anything we have ever had before? How do we shine because we have said I DO to Him, and are authentic in our worship of Him?
- GROW:....deeper
Make sure you are growing in your walk with God as a priority. How to grow is pretty simple, but to grow takes a lot of discipline. If you want to grow you must relationally do five things…
- Gospel Centrality: Preaching the Gospel to ourselves every day. Making sure we are relationally focused, free, and forgiven…that leads to a love driven compassion (2 Corinthians 5:14).
- Word Saturation: If you are not in the Word more than the world, you will think like the world, not the Word. This is the #1 problem in the Canadian church, we have become culturally aware, but biblically anemic. This Word saturation must include a deep desire to know God better, to understand what He commands, and to delight to obey it. This is the only place that security can be found in a broken world (Matthew 7:24-27).
- Prayer: This is relationally living in God’s presence, and pursuing deeper intimacy with God. It is praising Him, and pursuing Him in practical and natural ways as we overflow in our desire to always pray and never give up (Luke 18:1).
- Community: We must see gathering as God’s people and serving His bride in loyalty to Him as a priority, or we will slip into the deceitfulness of sin. There is no such thing as successful growing Christians who are not a healthy part of the local church, serving her with joy (Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 3:12-14).
- Relational Focus: This is a part of all of the first four, but because we can so quickly be distracted by religion, we fight this danger by seeking to be Spirit filled, Christ dominated people. To always seek to live a life driven and defined by our relationship with Him (Philippians 1:21; Galatians 2:20).
Will you choose to grow, and make these five things a priority in your pursuit of spiritual health so that our NEW NORMAL far outgrows the OLD. This is our only hope not to be distracted by the world around us, and to take advantage of this amazing opportunity we have to show how awesome God is in a lost and hurting world!
- GATHER: together for His glory
I suppose we have already said this in our pursuit of community, but here we will need humility and focus. There are some among us who disagreed, divided and discouraged. Others who have been out of touch for two years. We need the humility and growth to welcome one another back regardless of the position we took on Covid, masks, and mandates, because they are SO FAR SECONDARY TO CHRIST. This will mean repentance, and a renewal of Romans 12:10 preference of one another, and I encourage all of us to join in this, and choose to gather as soon as possible, and in our gatherings, to choose to LOVE one another, to go out of your way to notice and connect with new and old people. We have had a number of people join us online, and in person, and as we remove barriers and division in humility I am calling for each of us to choose holiness and love, in humility and Christ centredness. Choose Him over the worldview that has been yours over the past few years…and all of us need to constantly do this. HUMILITY IS THE PATHWAY TO AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY
- GO: I believe that we have an amazing opportunity as we live our lives in humble submission to God and His Word to shine in the world we live in, perhaps in our life time as never before (1 Peter 2:11-25). Let your life show you trust God, your hope shine in a broken world so strongly that people want to know your God. This is our time to let our light shine, and it will take our lives and our lips…so choose to be a part of Cloverdale Baptist Churches movement of life for God’s glory, as we choose His narrative over the worlds. A culture of evangelism means that we see this next year as a short term mission trip to the community God has placed us in, and to live our lives in such a way that we are on mission
- GLOW: Above all, love one another deeply (1 Peter 4:8). Choose love and its pathway as defined in 1 Corinthians 13 as a mark of Jesus uniform for you (John 13:34-35). Choose to be so marked by Him that you live a life of love (Ephesians 5:1-2). Love means self sacrificially choosing His best in your own life, and the lives of others, of laying aside your wants and opinions for the good of those who may disagree. If our lives are dominated by worshipping Jesus, this will be the supernatural overflow of His Spirit in us and through us. Choose this, even as you work on the heart that is needed to live this way in His strength for His glory.
Yes, it is not easy being a Christian, there is a cost if Jesus is your LORD (Luke 9:23), but it is well worth it!
Don’t give up! He is worth it, and His bride is your pathway to display your love for Him, and His love for the world (1 Corinthians 15:58).
If you are the first one to contact me after reading all of that, I will give you a signed copy of Mark Jones book, Knowing Christ, as a reminder of your commitment with us to Grow, Gather, Go and Glow. If you don’t hear back from me, it means someone beat you to it. May God grant us all the fullness of the Spirit to live this way!
Today is a day set aside to honour women, and International Women's Day is worth celebrating in God's way. God values women in a special and tender way, and it is worth us shouting to the world that we are created male and female, equal in value, dignity and worth, and special in service. Oh that we would show the world what it means to be men and women fully devoted to God, and value each other as God does, and avoid the way the world devalues men and women. If you are the first woman to contact me, after reading this, we have another Mark Jones signed book, Knowing Christ available for you. If I don't contact you, it means someone else was a little quicker :)
Sunday Is Coming:
We are welcoming special guests from Millar College to guide us into the presence of God and to study His Word.
We are excited for this as my friend Steve Janz helps us to know God better, and live for Him with more delight.
Privileged to be your servant, because He is our LORD
Pastor Rob
Remember to memorize Revelation 4:11...bookmarks are avaliable.