GBC Community Update: Be humble towards God

Good morning. I hope you’re making this a great week!  We’re still out in Edmonton. It’s been great to see the fruit coming out of decisions we made 20+ years ago. That’s the benefit of hindsight and patient persistence.  May God guide the decisions you’re making today!
 
 
Christmas decorating on Sunday
This Sunday after the service we will be decorating the church in preparation for the coming season.  We’ll be putting up the trees and everything else that goes along with it in order to make GBC very festive.  A pizza lunch will be available and then we’ll get down to business.  Hope you can make it!
 
 
Prayer for Transition, Provision, and Mission
We will be hosting prayer for thirty minutes before the service for the next 5 Sundays at 10 am in the Adult Ministry Room.  Prayer will be in-person and online.  There will be a time of praying for pastoral transition, raising funds for the next year, and gospel fruitfulness leading up to Christmas.  Coffee and donuts will be available for those who need fuel before prayer :) 
 
See link for Zoom below and the phone numbers for those who wish to join in online or by phone.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/21216757733?pwd=Z1JkN3dEeE9nTkhXY0tldlhEcWZFQT09

Meeting ID: 212 1675 7733
Passcode: 733870
Dial by your location
        +1 647 558 0588 Canada
        +1 778 907 2071 Canada
 
 
Join us on Sunday in-person or on our livestream as continue our Christmas series: “Preparing for the King”
Are you ready for the coming of the king?  Have you ever thought of Christmas in those terms?  We ware continuing our Christmas series.  This Sunday Jacob will be looking at the idea of Jesus as King from a different perspective than I did last week.
Remember, you can join us as we gather in-person or you can connect through our website www.guelphbiblechapel.ca  our YouTube channel as well as Facebook LIVE.
 
 
Thought for the Day:  How To Be Truly Thankful – Be Humble Towards God
Tuesday I began sharing some thoughts on being thankful.  I’d like to look at this through a different lens.  God said this in Deuteronomy 32: “Look now; I myself am He! There is no other god but Me! I am the One who kills and gives life; I am the One who wounds and heals; no one can be rescued from My powerful hand!”
Yikes!  Do you read that verse and cringe a little bit?  Do we really believe this?  Isn’t God all about love?  Yes, He is but this is more about God as LORD, as a sovereign king.  Think of it this way: who are we to know better than God? Or how about this: do we honestly think that we could last even one minute on this earth unless it was God’s will for us to remain? Or could we rule the heavens and the earth for 30 seconds (I know I couldn’t)?”
 
That’s kind of discouraging Chris!  And what does this have to do with being thankful? Here’s my point: I read recently, “We would choose the things that God chooses if we had the knowledge of God.”  Really?  Think about it, God’s heart is good because God is good. And God is love. (read 1 John 4:16) He’s weaving us into a grand tapestry, and when he cuts our thread or hides our thread behind others our pride flairs up and we get upset. If we’re honest, like Satan himself, sometimes we think we can do a better job of this “god thing”. We can’t. That makes it pretty hard to be thankful.  We are sinful and have selfish motivations. We want our thread to not only remain in the tapestry but for it to be the star of the show.
We want our lives to be free of trouble.  In times like this we need to remember Paul’s words in Romans 8: “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” 
We would choose the things that God chooses if we had the knowledge of God.
And we don’t, so it’s not on us. That should humble us and cause us to walk our day-to-day lives in humility.  So, when we come before God in humility, as a sovereign king who is in control of all things, how can we not be thankful? The world isn’t on our shoulders, its on HIS (remember that from Sunday’s message?).  I’m thankful for that, I hope you are too.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris