​Good afternoon!  I hope you’re making this a great week.  Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. A lot has gone on here and much has changed since our own Thanksgiving last month. Still, I find myself reflective and thinking about the things that I have to be thankful about, and there are a LOT. So, even if this is not our day of thanksgiving, I’d encourage you to spend some time remembering what you have to be thankful for and thanking the one who made it possible!
 
 
Outreach Workshop
This Sunday,  the 29th, we’ll be having our first outreach workshop starting at 12:15(ish!). For 30 minutes we’ll be looking at practical ways that you can strengthen and gain confidence in your ability to share your faith. There’ll be opportunity to practice as well as useful teaching to help you grow in comfort in this important part of discipleship.  I’m excited to see what comes from this as well look to let the light of the gospel shine more strongly through our lives.
 
 
Join us on Sunday
As a reminder, we’ll be having communion on Sunday. So whether you’re here live or joining on the livestream, be ready to remember Jesus and what he did on the cross. As well, I’ll  be finishing our series on the 7 churches. This week we look at Laodicea,  a church very different from Philadelphia. Find out the problem they faced and Jesus’  encouragement to them to get their act together.  You can join us here at 11am or by tuning in on our livestream.
 
 
Thought for the day: As faith grows, fear goes!
Our trust in God is based on His promises and His faithfulness. The Faith Chapter, Hebrews 11, is full of stories of men and women who grew to believe that God would do exactly what He promised. Their trust in the faithful God helped them face their fears and act in faith. It helped them wait patiently and courageously endure terrible and terrifying trials.
 
The greatest example is Jesus Christ Himself. Hebrews 12 reminds us: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”.  That’s powerful!
 
Like the faithful people of old, we should focus beyond this fearful world on the positive future God has in store. We can also meditate on and appreciate the comfort and peace God gives now. Even more, we can go to God and ask him for more faith. We should then act on that faith in obedience to God, since the Bible tells us “faith without works is dead”. If our focus is on God’s Word and His eternal promises more than the temporary physical circumstances, we will increase our faith and decrease our fear.  Give it a try!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris

​Good morning!  Okay, so I commented on the snow last week, well, its pretty hard to ignore but I’ll refrain from saying anything!!  Anyways, it was great to share in our baptisms on Sunday. As a father, it was a great joy to baptize my daughter but it was also amazing to see how God is working in Matthew’s life and how God led him to the GBC family.  There’s much we can be encouraged about as a church no matter what the color of Covid is right now!
 
 
Communion This Sunday!
Our next opportunity to participate in communion will be held this Sunday. I would encourage you to spend time this week preparing your hearts to commune with the Lord. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that when we take communion “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  This is a great thing to remember, Jesus is coming back and when he does, everything changes.   We’ll be remembering that on Sunday. I hope you’ll celebrate with us.
For those joining us on our livestream, I’d encourage you to participate.  If you’d like a set of the elements we’ll be using, let me know and I can arrange delivery.
 
 
Wednesday Prayer
Join Jacob and Karen Ginter for a time of prayer on Wednesday afternoons at 3pm here at GBC in the Side Auditorium.
For questions or further details please contact Jacob at– jginter@guelphprays.com or text 519-803-4453
 
 
Thought for the day: Go to God with your fears
The Bible instructs us many times to “fear not.” God doesn’t want us to be debilitated by fear.  For those who have the proper awe and respect for God and who strive to obey His commands, God makes some wonderful promises:
We read in Isaiah 41: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand”.   
Jesus said this: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”.
 
As we grow in the faith to believe these promises, we can increase our ability to turn our worries over to God.  Consider this biblical principle in your battle with fear:
We can ask God for His strength and peace. David, a man after God’s own heart, faced many frightening situations. After escaping one terrifying incident in the midst of Philistine territory, he wrote in the Psalms, “I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears”.  Paul gave us this advice and reassurance: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ”. 
Do you find yourself fearful? Go  to God with your fears by applying these principles and I bet you you’ll find things get a lot better.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris

​Good afternoon! I hope you’re making this a great week.  Thank you to all those who’ve wished Alec and Jazz well as they begin their new journey pastoring at Huron Park Baptist Church.  I appreciate also those of you who’ve prayed for him (and all my family) over the years. It really does mean a lot.  I’m excited to see how God works in this but have to confess I’ll miss having them around here at GBC. This really is a great family here!
 
 
Join us on Sunday
This Sunday I’ll  be speaking on the church at Philadelphia. They were doing a good job despite the challenges they faced, which is a great encouragement. Join me and find out why God assessed them this way. You can join us here at 11am or by tuning in on our livestream.
Here’s a quick reminder: you don’t need a Facebook account to join us.  You can connect direct by clicking on LIVE or else you can link to it through our website. Here’s a link to join in:
https://www.guelphbiblechapel.ca/sunday.html
 
 
Sharing our faith Survey Results
As you’ll probably remember, I sent out a survey a couple of weeks ago on your experience sharing your faith. I was really happy with the number of you who participated. In the end it was more than I’d expected.  The results were very interesting.  I’ll be reflecting on them a bit, and this will definitely inform the Outreach Workshops we’ll be having going forward.  On the question of have you ever shared your faith, most say they’ve done it on occasion, which is great!  If it’s been a while, or you’ve never had the chance (or have been too scared to) I’d encourage you to come out to my workshop next Sunday after church.  It’ll only be 30 minutes, so you won’t be too late for lunch, and we’ll explore how to become more comfortable doing it. One of the things that most of you said in the survey would be helpful would be the chance to practice and so there’ll be an opportunity to do that too. Hope you can make it out!
 
 
Thought for the day:
Fear is real and should not be downplayed, no matter what’s going on in the world. This is not just a Covid-thing, its part of life.  The Bible does not minimize many of the things we fear. In fact, it shows that the world will become more dangerous and frightening as the end times approach. But it also shows how we can deal with our fears—both the good and the bad.
First, the good fear.  The Bible does promote an appropriate—a reasonable fear that actually allows us to eliminate all the deceptive and destructive fears. This is the fear of the Lord that we’ve talked about before.  This healthy awe and respect for our Creator puts us on the path to spiritual knowledge and wisdom.  Proverbs 1:7 tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
But many other fears do not have good results.  Our temperament and experiences can contribute to the unique set of phobias and fearful feelings we have. Traumatic events early in life can etch pathways of fear into our brains. Feelings of insecurity can intensify natural human tendencies, like the common fear of public speaking.
Do we have to just live in a constant state of anxiety, punctuated by flashes of sheer terror?  Experts often suggest fighting irrational fears and phobias with education to change our thinking and practice dealing with the anxiety-producing situations. As Christians we can pray, memorize scripture and have people journey with us through these types of things.
But what about the rational fears—the real troubles facing our world that we often have little control over? Do we have to just live in a constant state of anxiety, punctuated by flashes of sheer terror?  No.  When we fear the Lord many of these come into clearer context and the other ones have a source we can take them to- God.  When he sits on the throne of your life it helps to deal with all of this.  We’ll go deeper into this next week. In the meantime, bring your fears to God!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris

Good morning!  Seems like we’re having a bit of a taste of winter with the weather the last few days.  We’ve moved into ‘orange’ in terms of our Covid rating. As we get closer to winter and the weather getting poorer there is much talk about what this all means for us.  How are you doing? Do you find yourself scared? Agitated?  Regardless, may we keep our eyes of Jesus and not let fear, no matter the motivator, get the better of us.
 
 
Outreach Workshop
Next Sunday, the 29th, we’ll be having our first outreach workshop starting at 12:15(ish!). For 30 minutes we’ll be looking at practical ways that you can strengthen and gain confidence in your ability to share your faith. There’ll be opportunity to practice as well as useful teaching to help you grow in comfort in this important part of discipleship.  I’m excited to see what comes from this as well look to let the light of the gospel shine more strongly through our lives.
 
 
Wednesday Prayer
Join Jacob and Karen Ginter for a time of prayer on Wednesday afternoons at 3pm here at GBC in the Side Auditorium.
For questions or further details please contact Jacob at– jginter@guelphprays.com or text 519-803-4453
 
 
Thought for the day: Fear creeps back in
 
As I mentioned last week, I want to revisit the issue of fear for a bit before we move into Christmas.  It seems like the relief from Covid concerns over the summer have given way to a new and growing fear as we are full into a second wave. We see cases climbing and the government and organizations respond with more restrictions. There’s an increase in fear as a result despite the fact a vaccine is coming.
What do we do?
Let’s look again at the issue of fear from a biblical perspective.
Here’s the reality- the things we fear grab our attention. It gets us ready to fight—or flee. Whether we mask our fear with macho bravado or slink away to seek refuge, it can have a powerful effect on our thinking, decisions and actions.
A healthy fear can keep us from harm. But too often fear keeps us from doing what we want—or need—to do. Sometimes it provokes us into wrong or dangerous responses. Biblically speaking, fear can contribute to obeying—or disobeying—God’s law. Do we fear God or do we fear the things around us?  God reminds us in Isaiah 41: “do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
What does this mean?
When fear creeps in, like it will do, remember, God is with you, He’s here to strengthen you and help you.  You’re in His hand.  In times of fear, keep your eyes fixed on Him.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris

Good afternoon!  I hope you’re making this a great week. I was excited to announce my son Alec’s appointment to the position of pastor at a church in Woodstock. Their last Sunday with us is the one coming up so we’re going to pray for them and formally send them off. I’ll miss having him, Jazz and Victoria around but am excited for God’s call on their lives.  This is a good reminder, despite all the distractions of Covid, God is still on the move!
 
 
Join us on Sunday
This Sunday Jacob will be speaking on the church at Sardis, a group of people in need of a wakeup call. Join us and find out what God’s prescription is for them. You can join us here at 11am or by tuning in on our livestream.
Here’s a quick reminder, you don’t need a Facebook account to join us.  You can connect direct by clicking on LIVE or else you can link to it through our website. Here’s a link to join in:
https://www.guelphbiblechapel.ca/sunday.html
 
 
Sharing our faith….Outreach survey update
Tuesday I sent out a survey on your experiences sharing your faith. Thanks for those who’ve filled in in already. I’ve been really interested to see how you’ve responded. A number of you have shared your thoughts with me on the composition of the survey and in particular the question of the frequency of sharing. I wanted you to know that I updated that question to reflect some of the input. Thanks for reading it carefully!
Have you done it yet? Are you now intrigued by what I just shared? There’s still time to do it!
I’ll report back on our findings in the next couple of weeks.
 
 
Thought for the day: Closing thoughts on fruit
The last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at the fruit of the Spirit, how to get it and what it looks like.  Let’s look at the text, in full, one last time.  Paul writes in Galatians 5: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
We often will read (or maybe even memorize) the components of the fruit but we don’t often look at the impact of it which we see in the verses that follow. I could write probably a bunch of blogs on this but instead I’m going to encourage you to read it reflectively and talk to God about how this applies to your life.  May we all seek to live in this manner and let our lights shine!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris

​Good morning!  To go from snow to amazing, warm weather in the course of the week is not normal. But then I’m reminded that nothing about 2020 has been normal.  While lots of things are changing, I’m glad God doesn’t. We read in the Bible he’s the same “yesterday, today and forever.” 
Remembrance Day is tomorrow. I’d encourage you to take a minute or two of silence around 11am to remember those who died so others may live. Lest we forget.
 
 
Sharing our faith
When I ask, “do you share your faith?” What comes to mind?   Excitement? Terror?  Interest? Ambivalence?  We all have different experiences with the idea that we need to share our faith. This is what outreach is about and is one of our key focus areas as a church.
So, to help us interact with this, our communications team (thanks Darren!) has put together a short survey on your faith experience. I’d encourage you to HONETSTLY fill it out so then our Outreach Team, which I lead, can best help you be prepared to share your faith as God allows opportunities to arise.
In addition, I’m going to be holding regular monthly workshops on Sunday’s after church to help equip and give you the opportunity to increase your comfort in this important part of our faith experience. The first one is going to be held on Sunday November 29. More details to come.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYKg-IqJ849KwxugVvFvSDykMTGu0Y-u8nSMNMjvSxfTFK9w/viewform

 
Wednesday Prayer
Join Jacob and Karen Ginter for a time of prayer on Wednesday afternoons at 3pm here at GBC in the Side Auditorium.
For questions or further details please contact Jacob at– jginter@guelphprays.com or text 519-803-4453
 
 
Thought for the day: Growing fruit takes exercise!
Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy 4 that we are to train ourselves to be Godly.  This means that growing the fruit of the Spirit is like growing a muscle. The muscle is already a part of us but we have to choose to use it if we want to see any growth. We have to exercise faith and believe that we have everything we need for growth. When we exercise our ‘spiritual muscles’ the resulting growth will make us more compassionate, more empathetic, kinder, more joyful, more peaceful, and gentler, with the common strand of love. That’s the Fruit of the Spirit!  As we choose to seek to mature, we’ll see evidence of this growth and the impact it makes on others. Here’s an important point though: growing the Fruit of the Spirit relies on the Holy Spirit producing His fruit in us, with the Holy Spirit's power making changes in our lives day by day. Seek, and then work, to BUILD your fruit!
 
In His grip,
Pastor

​Good afternoon!  I hope you’re making this a great week. As the world waits for the mess which is the US election to unravel, I’m comforted by the reminder God is already aware of the outcome and he’s already working out his plan based on the results no matter how they end up. May we then not allow this to distract us from God’s call on our life and our church’s to be a lampstand and let the light of Jesus shine.
 
 
Come out and help us out!
As a reminder, this Saturday GBC is holding our fall work party. Led by our property committee, we’ll be raking leaves and doing other things to get ready for winter. If you have a few hours to spare and would like to invest it in this, I’d appreciate it.  We’ll be starting at 9am. Bring a rake if you can since primarily the focus is raking leaves.
 
 
Join us on Sunday
This Sunday I’ll be looking at the church at Thyatira as we continue our series on being a church for today.  This one holds another warning! What’s up this time?  Find out on Sunday by either joining me here at 11am or tuning in on our livestream.
Here’s a quick reminder, you don’t need a Facebook account to join us.  You can connect direct by clicking on LIVE or else you can link to it through our website. Here’s a link to join in:
https://www.guelphbiblechapel.ca/sunday.html
 
 
Thought for the day: Ever think of fruit as a gift from God?
Let’s look at this idea of the Fruit of the Spirit in a different way.  Because the Holy Spirit is a gift to believers, God gives us the power to live fruitful lives. Christianity is not a rules-based religion (though there are some!). Our growth is not gained based on how much good we do, but it’s an outpouring of a relationship with a living God that forces and encourages us to live better; to aspire to be like Him; to be Holy as He is holy. Growing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is evidence of these internal changes. When we nurture our relationship with God, we have access to the Son, and we water our lives with his Word.  When we do that, we grow and are equipped to deal with whatever the world throws at us. How practical! But then again, that’s our God!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris

​Snow? Really?!? Yikes!  Glad it didn’t last! Good morning, welcome to November.  The elders and I were praying this morning and we prayed through 1 Peter 1:3. I was reminded that we are born again to a LIVING hope through the resurrection of Jesus. What an encouragement on a dull day!
Is your hope living or do you find it leaking? Do the cloudy skies reflect your mood right now? If you’re struggling with hope don’t carry this alone! Talk to me or someone else.  We as a church family are here to walk with each other because, well, we have a living hope!
 
 
Sunday Service Update- Thanks for showing love!
It’s been great seeing so many of you out on Sunday’s again. I’m thankful also for our livestream and thankful for our amazing AV team who make sure this happens every week so those of you joining us this way can still connect. 
I’d also like to thank all of you who’ve been following our Covid protocols, wearing masks properly and physical distancing.  I know this can be an inconvenience but I know that there are some who have medical concerns who appreciate those who show love through doing these types of things. This reminds me of how Paul tells us in Philippians 2 that we should have an attitude like Jesus, who made himself nothing and became a servant. A great way to show the love of Jesus, and be the light that shines out of our lampstand like I’ve been talking about, is simple acts of kindness like this.
 
 
Wednesday Prayer
Join Jacob and Karen Ginter for a time of prayer on Wednesday afternoons at 3pm here at GBC in the Side Auditorium.
For questions or further details please contact Jacob at– jginter@guelphprays.com or text 519-803-4453
 
 
Thought for the day: Growing fruit takes time
We continue to look this week at how to grow fruit in our lives, the Fruit of the Spirit.  This is not just a ‘spiritual’ thing but very practical, especially in days like we’re facing. Growing in fruit means growing as a disciple of Jesus. This is not just about letting your light shine but also helps you to deal with the stress and pressure of our Covid world.  Sound good?
Here’s the thing, just like in nature, our spiritual growth takes time. Just like seeds, we must be planted in good soil, nurtured and watered. What this looks like, practically, is a lifelong work of submitting all of our life under God’s authority. We grow in knowledge of God through his Word, and grow our love of God through knowing him and obeying him. We come into spiritual community through our church and grow under the learning of other believers. We renounce old sin tendencies and through the power of Christ’s strength, learn to walk in obedience. We die to our old selves and put on our new self in Christ Jesus. When we do that, we’ll find ourselves being transformed as the seed bursts forth into fruit.  While it takes time (and you all know how patient I am!) it’s so worth it!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris