January 24, 2019
Dear friends,
On Tuesday, Karen and I had lunch with a group of ministers and Christian workers in the Chateauguay area. It was good to renew acquaintances and to meet some for the first time. One of the latter is a man who told us that his family was from an island in Greece. It was neat to find out that he knows many people with Greek roots in the evangelical community in Montreal that we met many years ago. This reminded me of something that I wrote a few months ago that I entitled: “My Testimony: It Really is a Small World” that recounts part of my spiritual journey. If you would like a copy of this, please let me know and I will be glad to email it to you.
Since I asked the Lord Jesus to forgive my sins when I was seventeen, I have thought many times how wonderful it is to meet brothers and sisters in Christ. No matter what country someone is from or what language he or she speaks, there is a bond of unity that the Holy Spirit gives that is unlike anything that human associations can foster. I remember learning the words of Psalm 133 (please see the Scripture for the weekend below) in Spanish when I was in Tijuana, Mexico with Operation Mobilization in December 1979. Although nearly forty years have passed since then, the melody of that praise song still rings in my heart.
While driving this morning, I heard part of a message by Charles Price, former senior pastor of Peoples Church in Toronto. He is one of my favourite speakers and I was glad to find a video on the Internet in which he tells about his spiritual heritage. To hear his story, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfuZ4zzSzlw.
A very sad development this week is the passing of a bill in New York which is called the Reproductive Health Act, described by Governor Andrew Cuomo as “the most aggressive” abortion law in the United States of America. For more information on this, please visit: https://aleteia.org/2019/01/23/bill-making-abortion-a-right-passes-in-new-york/. Karen was in a group study with several women today and one lady said that Christians need to speak out about things that God hates, like the murder of unborn children.
Scripture for the weekend: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1 (NASB)
Thought for the weekend: “In Martin Luther’s meditation on these verses (Psalm 119:65-72) he said that trials (Anfechtungen) were one of his best teachers: ‘I want you to know how to study theology in the right way. I have practiced this method myself … Here you will find three rules. They are frequently proposed throughout Psalm (119) and run thus: Oratio, meditatio, tentatio (Prayer, meditation, trial)…. (Trials) teach you not only to know and understand but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s word is: it is wisdom supreme.’” – Dr. John Piper (from his book “A Godward Heart”)
By His grace,
Steve