GBC Community Update: My redeemer lives

Good morning. It’s Holy Week, the most sacred of the year for we who follow Jesus. Are you ready?  I had the opportunity to be the speaker for a conference in New Brunswick this past weekend and they had a big, rough-cut cross on the platform. Though I hadn’t intended to talk that much about it I found myself gravitating back towards it session after session.  That’s the power of the cross, it draws us to it (BTW- thanks to those who prayed for me and this weekend, God moved powerfully throughout the event).
 
 
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING  AND LUNCH - APRIL 16
Please plan to join us for our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Sunday, April 16 following our morning service.  The purpose of the meeting is to approve the 2022 financial statements, approve the 2023 budget, appoint an auditor and elect Directors to hold office until the next annual general meeting.  We will also be providing important updates on GBC ministries, pastoral transition and some other interesting topics that you will not want to miss.  If you are member and are unable to attend, please complete a proxy form (attached) to ensure that we achieve quorum for the AGM.  
We will also be having a fellowship lunch as part of the AGM.  
We hope to see you there!  
 
 
April’s Calendar is here
The April calendar is attached for those who haven’t picked on up yet.  Use this to be informed on what’s happening but also to pray for our ministries as well.

 
Thought for the Day:  The Power of the Resurrection: “I know that my Redeemer lives” 
Easter is this Sunday!  For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been looking at some critical elements of the Easter story that help us live in God’s power week-in and week-out, making Easter more than an event on our calendar. I have two more thoughts to share on this as we prepare to remember and celebrate the cross and the empty tomb.
 
Several thousand years before Jesus rose from the dead Job made this declaration: “I know that my Redeemer lives (Job 19:25).  It’s a powerful and important statement for us today.  The question, to me, then is, what is God saying here through Job?
Job is considered by many to be the oldest book in the Bible.  And the oldest of books has to do with the oldest of problems: “Why do the righteous suffer?”
 
Up to this verse in the story of Job, he is asking questions, tough questions.  In his grief and anguish, he asks: “man dies, and is laid low; he breathes his last and where is he?”  This is a question many ask, especially in days like this, but his follow up is even more powerful: “If a man die, will he live again?” These were unanswerable questions that rose from a perplexed and anguished heart and are still being asked today.  But with his cry of faith, “I know that my Redeemer lives,” he is on solid ground.
 
Job had no Bible, he had no church history or tradition, but he did have a prompting of the Holy Spirit to make the statement that has conveyed assurance to believers down through the centuries.  Job says, “I know.” He points with certainly to the fact that the solution to all problems, the ultimate answer to all questions, whether they be old and persistent or new and passing, lies in knowing that the Lord, our Redeemer, lives.
God in Christ is on top of it all.
 
He lives.
 
He has conquered the last great enemy which is death. This allowed Paul to make this statement to the church in Rome about Jesus:  He is “declared to be the Son of God with power …by the resurrection from the dead.”  We can make that same declaration today, hold onto that same assurance and experience not just the promise of the resurrection but the power it gives for today.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris