GBC Community Update: Fruitful living by abiding

​Happy Canada Day!   It’s been a tough year for Canada in many ways so I would encourage you to pray for our nation. We were once referred to as the ‘Dominion of Canada’ which was a nod to the impact God had on the forming of our nation. We may have forgotten this as a country but God hasn’t forgotten us!
 
 
Share GBC with your world
As you know, GBC is now active on social media through our Facebook page and YouTube channel.  For those who are following us, engaging in content and watching the livestream, thank you!  But we’d also like to spread the Good News of peace with God and daily encouragement that comes out to the world around us.
So, I would appreciate it if you would consider sharing a post that touches you or better yet inviting your social media friends to check out our livestream or watch our YouTube channel videos.   I’ll never be able to reach your friends in the same way but you can.  Share posts on your timeline or share our Sunday service. Let’s use the tools of social media to reach the world around us.
 
 
Join us on Sunday in-person or on our livestream for Faith that Works!
This Sunday at 11am I will be continuing our series: “Faith that Works”, a look at the book of James. We’re starting to wrap up so this Sunday I will be looking at the first part of ch.5 and the idea of patience. Oh boy, is this one relevant to me!!! Find out what I learned Sunday as we build together a ‘faith that works’.
 
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: What is the fruitful Christian life?  Fruitful living by abiding
If we read the entire passage in John 15 where Jesus called His followers to be fruitful, He specifically said that the only way they could carry out this task was for them to abide in him.  What did he mean by this?
 
Abide means to endure or to wait patiently.  The fact that the word “abide” is mentioned eight times in seven verses in John 15 strongly points out how the branch cannot produce its own life, or fruit; it must draw that life from the vine. In other words, it is crucial to abide in Jesus if we are to live a fruitful Christian life.
 
One note, if you’re reading from the New International Version, the word “remain” is used instead of “abide”.  It has the same meaning- stick with it.  Remain is mentioned eleven times in the NIV in John 15. Do we get the point Jesus is trying to make?
 
After Jesus announced to His disciples that He would be leaving them soon and promising the Holy Spirit to abide with them forever, we now come to the seventh and last of the “I am” statements” “I am the vine”. If you remember, we looked at these earlier in the year.  As Jesus spoke to His disciples in the upper room, preparing to leave for the cross, He uses the imagery of a vine to describe the new relationship which His disciples were about to enjoy with Him and with the Father. For those of us in Jesus, we experience the same thing today. Our Lord is the vine; the believers are the branches, and the Father is the vinedresser (gardener) who tends the vine, removing dead branches and pruning them so that they will become even more fruitful.  I’d encourage you to reread John 15 today and reflect on this.  We live a fruitful Christian life by remaining in Jesus and staying connected to the source of life. Do that and watch your fruit grow!
 
Happy Canada Day!
 
Pastor Chris