GBC Community Update: What does it mean to be a person of character?

​Good morning!  With a provincial election underway, a war in Ukraine and so many things going on recently I’ve been thinking about the need for character that reflects our hope in God in times like this. So, for the next few updates I’ll be sharing some thoughts on this.
 
 
Outreach Opportunity: Tree Planting with the Junction Neighborhood Group
The Junction Neighbourhood Group will be planting trees and clearing away invasive plants on the morning of Saturday June 11 at Goldie Park (63 Memorial Cres).  Volunteers from Guelph Bible Chapel participated in the last tree planting in 2016 and we've been invited to join again!  This is a great way to engage and love our neighbours by supporting their efforts to improve their community park.  If you'd like to participate in this event, please let Andrea Thornton know at [email protected] or 905-537-9607.  
 
 
Thought for the Day:  What does it mean to be a person of character?
As I mentioned, I’m going to be looking at the issue of character over the next couple of weeks.  I’ll look at an element of character and then share some practical tips on how to grow in this important area of being a disciple of Jesus.
To start with, character is defined as the attributes and features that make up a person. That’s good, but I like to take it one step further: character is ‘moral excellence and firmness. strength of moral fiber.’ Pastor and author A.W. Tozer described character as “the excellence of moral beings.”
As the excellence of gold is its purity and the excellence of art is its beauty, so the excellence of people is in their character. Persons of character are noted for their honesty, ethics, and charity. Descriptions such as “man of principle” and “woman of integrity” are assertions of character. A lack of character is moral deficiency, and persons lacking character tend to behave dishonestly, unethically, and uncharitably. It’s pretty straightforward but hard to attain!
Here's your first tip on growing in character: Read! 
Let's say you get an e-mail from one of your close friends you haven't heard from in a while. What do you do? You read it, of course!  God wrote several letters to us, including James which we’re currently studying.  When was the last time you read them? We develop character by understanding how God sees it and then applying this to our lives. Make sense?  Good!  But don't take out your dusty Bible and read it from cover-to-cover tonight. No guilt trip here. Instead, find and following a reading plan but also read other books, like devotionals, studies or commentaries that repeatedly talk about and look at the Bible; then you should read chapters of the Bible dealing with the issue in your devotional. We have some excellent resources in our church library in the Side Aud to help you with this. Check it out or ask Elaine Finlay, the librarian, for options.
A good standard of Bible reading time is ten to twenty minutes a day. You can do more if you want, obviously.  Do this and you can’t help but grow in character!
More to come!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris