GBC Community Update: Things to help us draw closer to God

​Good morning. I hope you’re making this a great week.  I hope also you have a good long weekend as we prepare ourselves for fall.  I won’t be here on Sunday as I’m going to Woodstock to see Alec preach at his church.  I can’t wait to see him ‘in action’ again!
 
 
Reminder: Sunday services change to 10:30am as of September 11
As a reminder, as of September 11, our service times are changing to 10:30am.  Set you alarms so you can be here for our fall kickoff. As a reminder, we’ve moved our service up to allow for more relevant content as well as having time for community building afterwards.
 
 
Ministry Fair and Lunch on the Lawn
As part of our fall ministry launch on September 11 we’ll be having a Ministry Fair in the Side Auditorium.  You’ll have the chance to connect with a variety of GBC ministries and find out what’s going on, how you might pray and serve there too.
In addition, we’ll be having our always-popular ‘Lunch on the Lawn” This BYOL (bring your own lunch) event is a chance to connect with you church family and build community. Bring some food, a blanket or lawn chairs and we’ll provide the drinks. In case of rain we move indoors.
 
 
Join us on Sunday in-person or on our livestream as we conclude our summer series “Hear my prayer, Lord”: Great prayers of the Bible
Sunday we wrap up our summer series “Hear my prayer, Lord”: Great prayers of the Bible.    This Sunday Jacob will by tying things off.  He won’t be talking about the Lord’s Prayer this time.  What’s he looking at?  Find out on Sunday!
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.
 
 
Summer thoughts to keep you on the journey: Spiritual Practices to help us draw closer to God
As we wind down the summer, you’ll recall I’ve been talking at times over the past two months about choices as I seek to help you “keep on the journey”.  I hope you’ve been gathering that a key element of doing this is walking close to God.  This can be more than just an attitude, it can become a spiritual discipline or practice. There’s lots of ways we can draw closer to God.  One practice to consider is turning our hands up to God at various times and praying like the Canaanite woman, “Lord, help me” (Matt 15:25) or with blind Bartimaeus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mk 10:47). Or we might consider meditatively praying the Lord’s Prayer morning, noon, and evening. The verse “Give us this day our daily bread” will seem more relevant than ever. Perhaps as we take in news updates, we could imagine presenting the need or concern found in it to Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father.
Additionally, short prayers of lament can aid us in bringing our loss, anger, and confusion to God: “How long, O Lord?” (Ps 13:2), “Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?” (Ps 10:1), “Come quickly, Lord, to help me” (Ps 40:13), “Lord, have mercy on us,” (Matt 20:21), and “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matt 26:39). In times like this when God can seem far away this brings him back to where he really is- as close as we let him be.
These are not practices that are meant to take us out of the moment. Instead, they are practices that allow us to remain in the moment in a faithful, redemptive, life-giving way and that helps us walk closer to God.  Bring these ideas into your daily life and you can’t help but draw closer to God.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris