I was so blessed yesterday by our worship service. The music was so worshipful and having communion together is always a precious time to me as your Pastor. I love looking out over the congregation and seeing all the different (and I mean different) people!! To see every age from 1st grade to senior citizen, male and female, so many different backgrounds all united because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross! It brings tears to my eyes to look out and see so many lives that have been "bought back" from the possession and control of the Evil One and now brought into the marvellous light! It is an awesome thing and I count it a great privilege to be your Pastor. God has a deep, deep love for each and everyone of you and He has placed His love for you into my heart as well!
I already mentioned the music but I wanted to return to the songs that we sang yesterday. Worship music is so important in the life of a believer - it helps prepare our hearts and the biblical words can be memorized and sung all day long. The words minister to us also as a counselor to our soul.
I thought I would share with you the title of the songs and the author. In case you would like to find more worship music that helps you "fix your eyes on Jesus".
Opening song - "Hosanna" by Paul Baloche
Offertory - "Mighty is the power of the Cross" by Chris Tomlin
Congregational song - "How deep the Father's love for us" by Stuart Townend
Special - "The power of the cross" by Keith Getty
Closing song - "The wonderful cross" by Isaac Watts and new lyrics by Chris Tomlin
We will be opening a small bookstore in the near future which will make good books and good music available to you. It may start out as a "bookshelf" but we hope it will grow into something that not only our congregation uses but even the community. We want to be putting into your hands as much "cross centered" material as we can.
If you have any comments regarding the worship service, these songs, communion, etc. please feel free to post them.
God bless,
Pastor Jerry
Monday, April 2, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
The God of all comfort
Today I am reading in 2 Corinthians 1. Listen to this Scripture:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort."
The God of our comfort has brought comfort to us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.
We must remember that God will use our trials and sufferings for our good and His glory! We know that no matter what trial we go through, our God is in the midst of it. He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. We do not have to fear because He is with us. And when we have come out of the trial, we are more equipped to be used of Him to bring comfort to someone else. Notice the verse says that we which have been comforted in all our afflictions can then be used to comfort those who are going through any affliction. I find this very interesting. We often think that we can only comfort someone who is going through the same kind of trial or suffering that we have been through. But, the Scripture says if we have been through an affliction, we can comfort others who are going through any affliction. So, if I have lost a loved one to cancer, I can comfort others and not only people who have or are losing a loved one to cancer. I am also a prospect to help someone who is going through marital problems. How does that works?? Well, the bottom line of all pain and suffering is that it hurts. So, you and I that know pain know what it means to be "lying on our backs" and have no place to look but up! That is the best thing we can bring to others who are suffering - the experience that we have of hitting rock bottom and finding that God is a God of mercy. Paul in 2 Cor. 1 goes on to say that he "was so utterly burdened beyond his strength that he actually despaired of life itself". But he says that this was to make him not rely on himself but on God! All trials and suffering are opportunities that God uses to turn us to Him and help us to trust Him more. As I look back on my life, I recognize that the trials and pain are what caused me to grow the most.
A.W Tozar put it best when he said "it is doubtful that God ever used anybody greatly without first hurting him deeply". That is an amazing statement and I have found it to be true. Think of the great men of the Bible who we long to emulate. Joseph, Daniel, Job, David, the Apostle Paul and on and on.
On Sunday evening, I shared a story about a Pastor who went to visit and pray with a family who had just gotten some difficult news. So, he stood next to the family and prayed "Dear Lord, give this family strength...may they know Your grace and comfort...would You wrap Your arms around this family" and as he prayed those words he put his arm around the father. When he finished praying, the man quickly looked up and said "oh, its just you". When the Pastor questioned what he meant by that, the man replied "Well, you prayed for God to wrap His arms around us and for a moment I thought I felt His arm, but it was just your arm". The Pastor quickly responded "it was God, He just used the arms that were closest at that time!"
This is what God wants us to be - His hands and His feet. May we go where He sends us and may He use us today as empty vessels.
As I finish this entry, I am leaving my office to go and sit and talk with a man that is hurting so badly that he too is "despairing of life itself". I pray that God will use me to help him to "look up"!
God bless!
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort."
The God of our comfort has brought comfort to us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.
We must remember that God will use our trials and sufferings for our good and His glory! We know that no matter what trial we go through, our God is in the midst of it. He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. We do not have to fear because He is with us. And when we have come out of the trial, we are more equipped to be used of Him to bring comfort to someone else. Notice the verse says that we which have been comforted in all our afflictions can then be used to comfort those who are going through any affliction. I find this very interesting. We often think that we can only comfort someone who is going through the same kind of trial or suffering that we have been through. But, the Scripture says if we have been through an affliction, we can comfort others who are going through any affliction. So, if I have lost a loved one to cancer, I can comfort others and not only people who have or are losing a loved one to cancer. I am also a prospect to help someone who is going through marital problems. How does that works?? Well, the bottom line of all pain and suffering is that it hurts. So, you and I that know pain know what it means to be "lying on our backs" and have no place to look but up! That is the best thing we can bring to others who are suffering - the experience that we have of hitting rock bottom and finding that God is a God of mercy. Paul in 2 Cor. 1 goes on to say that he "was so utterly burdened beyond his strength that he actually despaired of life itself". But he says that this was to make him not rely on himself but on God! All trials and suffering are opportunities that God uses to turn us to Him and help us to trust Him more. As I look back on my life, I recognize that the trials and pain are what caused me to grow the most.
A.W Tozar put it best when he said "it is doubtful that God ever used anybody greatly without first hurting him deeply". That is an amazing statement and I have found it to be true. Think of the great men of the Bible who we long to emulate. Joseph, Daniel, Job, David, the Apostle Paul and on and on.
On Sunday evening, I shared a story about a Pastor who went to visit and pray with a family who had just gotten some difficult news. So, he stood next to the family and prayed "Dear Lord, give this family strength...may they know Your grace and comfort...would You wrap Your arms around this family" and as he prayed those words he put his arm around the father. When he finished praying, the man quickly looked up and said "oh, its just you". When the Pastor questioned what he meant by that, the man replied "Well, you prayed for God to wrap His arms around us and for a moment I thought I felt His arm, but it was just your arm". The Pastor quickly responded "it was God, He just used the arms that were closest at that time!"
This is what God wants us to be - His hands and His feet. May we go where He sends us and may He use us today as empty vessels.
As I finish this entry, I am leaving my office to go and sit and talk with a man that is hurting so badly that he too is "despairing of life itself". I pray that God will use me to help him to "look up"!
God bless!
Friday, March 9, 2007
The Hope of Glory
This has been a thought of mine for some time now...to start a "blog". Not because I think I have so much to say or offer but actually because I just wanted to give our congregation an opportunity to have access to the "daily" life of our church and my ministry. Every day there are things that happen that I would like to share with many but there never seems to be a good way to do it. Sometimes they are prayer requests and other times they are Scriptures or articles that I read. And sometimes they are conversations or even "Divine" appointments that should be shared. So, I have decided to open this "blog" as an open "journal" of my ministry. I hope that you find it interesting and helpful.
I have chosen to title this blog - The Hope of Glory. Without preaching, I would like to explain why I have chosen this title. We have learned and are learning more every day about our purpose and why we exist! The best summary of our purpose is that we are here to "know God and enjoy Him". Rev. 4:11 tells us that we (all things) are made for His pleasure! We are here for Him and not the other way around. He is the Center of everything and everything revolves around Him. We are here to know God (have a personal relationship with Him) and bring Him glory! Our purpose on this earth is to make His Name great. To magnify who He is to everyone around us. To magnify doesnt mean to "make Him bigger than He is" but to bring to light just how big and awesome He really is. Just as we use a magnifying glass - not to make anything bigger, but to make it more visible to us so we can see it for what it truly is! This is what our lives are for - to magnify, honor, and glorify God. But there is a great problem with us achieving our purpose. It's called sin. Romans 3:23 says "for all have sinned and (therefore) fallen short of the glory of God". Our sin has ruined and tainted everything, including us achieving our purpose. This is a major problem and one that we cannot fix in and of our ownselves. But Corinthians tells us that we see 'the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ'. What God did for us is send His only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came and achieved what we could not achieve. He lived the perfect life! Which means He lived His whole life for the glory of His Father. He always did what pleased the Father. His life was given to us as a substitute. He lived and died in our place! The Bible tells us that we must in repentance turn from our sins and by faith trust in His substituitionary life and death for us. Turning to God is no longer trusting in our own "person" and "works" to appease God but instead trusting in the "person" and "work" of Christ alone to pay the debt that we owed. He paid a debt that He did not owe because I owed a debt that I could not pay!
Now, once we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ in this manner, the Bible says that we are new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). This is the exchanged life. Christ on the cross became sin for us and He gave us His righteousness. This is how we can now stand before a perfect and holy God with confidence. Not because we are good enough. We could never be good enough. We would have to be perfect to be allowed to enter into the presence of God. It is not our own merits or good efforts that gets us in to Heaven but it is the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed (credited) to us. One of my favorite hymns says it this way:
because the sinless Savior died
my sinful soul is counted free
for God the just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me
So, back to the point of the title. How can sinners live for God's glory?? What could I ever do as mortal man that would bring glory to a Holy and Righteous God? Well, the verse in Colossians gives us the secret.
Col. 1:27 "Christ in you, the hope of glory"
What hope do we have to achieve the glory of God?? This verse tells us that it is Christ in you and Christ in me. The only way I can achieve my purpose of bringing glory to God is through the Spirit of Christ who lives in me.
This is why we have verses like Galatians 2:20
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
So, the title of this blog is dedicated to the purpose of why I (and we) are here and how that purpose is accomplished. Each and every day that we awake I hope that this blog will be used to remind us that we are here to bring Him glory and while that may seem like a daunting task, it is actually possible because of the life of Christ that lives in you and me.
I pray that this blog will be a living journal of the life of Christ living in me each and every day!
For His Glory,
Pastor Jerry Croyts
I have chosen to title this blog - The Hope of Glory. Without preaching, I would like to explain why I have chosen this title. We have learned and are learning more every day about our purpose and why we exist! The best summary of our purpose is that we are here to "know God and enjoy Him". Rev. 4:11 tells us that we (all things) are made for His pleasure! We are here for Him and not the other way around. He is the Center of everything and everything revolves around Him. We are here to know God (have a personal relationship with Him) and bring Him glory! Our purpose on this earth is to make His Name great. To magnify who He is to everyone around us. To magnify doesnt mean to "make Him bigger than He is" but to bring to light just how big and awesome He really is. Just as we use a magnifying glass - not to make anything bigger, but to make it more visible to us so we can see it for what it truly is! This is what our lives are for - to magnify, honor, and glorify God. But there is a great problem with us achieving our purpose. It's called sin. Romans 3:23 says "for all have sinned and (therefore) fallen short of the glory of God". Our sin has ruined and tainted everything, including us achieving our purpose. This is a major problem and one that we cannot fix in and of our ownselves. But Corinthians tells us that we see 'the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ'. What God did for us is send His only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came and achieved what we could not achieve. He lived the perfect life! Which means He lived His whole life for the glory of His Father. He always did what pleased the Father. His life was given to us as a substitute. He lived and died in our place! The Bible tells us that we must in repentance turn from our sins and by faith trust in His substituitionary life and death for us. Turning to God is no longer trusting in our own "person" and "works" to appease God but instead trusting in the "person" and "work" of Christ alone to pay the debt that we owed. He paid a debt that He did not owe because I owed a debt that I could not pay!
Now, once we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ in this manner, the Bible says that we are new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). This is the exchanged life. Christ on the cross became sin for us and He gave us His righteousness. This is how we can now stand before a perfect and holy God with confidence. Not because we are good enough. We could never be good enough. We would have to be perfect to be allowed to enter into the presence of God. It is not our own merits or good efforts that gets us in to Heaven but it is the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed (credited) to us. One of my favorite hymns says it this way:
because the sinless Savior died
my sinful soul is counted free
for God the just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me
So, back to the point of the title. How can sinners live for God's glory?? What could I ever do as mortal man that would bring glory to a Holy and Righteous God? Well, the verse in Colossians gives us the secret.
Col. 1:27 "Christ in you, the hope of glory"
What hope do we have to achieve the glory of God?? This verse tells us that it is Christ in you and Christ in me. The only way I can achieve my purpose of bringing glory to God is through the Spirit of Christ who lives in me.
This is why we have verses like Galatians 2:20
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
So, the title of this blog is dedicated to the purpose of why I (and we) are here and how that purpose is accomplished. Each and every day that we awake I hope that this blog will be used to remind us that we are here to bring Him glory and while that may seem like a daunting task, it is actually possible because of the life of Christ that lives in you and me.
I pray that this blog will be a living journal of the life of Christ living in me each and every day!
For His Glory,
Pastor Jerry Croyts
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