Happenings May 21, 2023 – May 28, 2023

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Musings on God’s Word

Something society has done is turn ordinary people into Heroes. Yes there are heroes that save other people from disastrous events. Then there are the so called sports heroes, or well known people who have a particular skill and are called heroes.

So what really is a hero?  If we look in the Oxford Dictionary it says “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities” i.e. a “War hero”.

There are also heroes of the faith who encourage us to draw near to God and pray as we wade through difficult situations. People such as John Bunyan. John Bunyan served as Puritan pastor. Early in his ministry, he was imprisoned when he refused to stop preaching and submit to the laws against nonconformity with the Church of England. Consequently, John Bunyon served 12 years in prison where he was separated from his wife and 4 children. However, his time in prison was not wasted. God provided time for him to study the Bible, pray, and to write, including his most famous work “The Pilgrim’s Progress”. Prison provided John the opportunity to cultivate a deep intimate fellowship with Christ. His suffering drove him to cling to God’s Word and pray, which gave him strength and sustained him to persevere until he was pardoned by Charles II in 1672.

John referred to Prayer as a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we spend time in prayer we can reflect on the perspective on John Bunyan and pray with a heart that is “sincere, sensible, and affectionate pouring out our soul to God.

Ephesians 3:16-19

16. that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17. that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18. may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—
19. to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I am reading Lloyd Oppel’s book, “Heroes of the Faith”, about his time in captivity during the Vietnam war and I can only imagine what he and Sam were going through by reading about it. We see in Lloyd’s book how their dependence on God, during that time, was so very important. Lloyd and Sam are heros in my estimation. In fact Lloyd and Sam had communion every Sunday during their time of difficulty using whatever was at hand to represent “bread & wine”.   Let us follow the example of these men and we can be heroes. 

Services

Chapel Update

• • The fridge that quit was easily repaired on Wednesday. It suffered from a loosened wire to the compressor.  However during its repair it was pointed out there was a hole in the floor from the water line below, that needed to be plugged, to prevent mice from entering the kitchen. This has been dealt with. 

• • Rear steps at the emergency door and railing alongside the ramp are being repaired and was finished on Thursday.

• • Rear parking lot work should happen during the June 2^nd to 9^th time period likely beginning on June 5^th. This has the potential to disrupt the ladies and men’s meetings on June 6^th & 9^th.

Looking forward to seeing you all

JACK PEAKE
250-510-4299
JBPEAKE174@GMAIL.COM