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By Rhema Stevenson

Writing.

Don’t like it.

Not a fan.

You can certainly say it’s one of the reasons why I decided to become an engineer. The thought of having to spend my years in university writing essays and reports would make me froth at the mouth. Give me the complexity of numbers and equations any day. I can honestly say I even freaked out a bit when they began introducing letters to mathematical equations.

For as long as I could remember, I was never one for writing notes during a sermon. Every week I would lean in and try to absorb everything that was being said, and every week I would forget. Sermons are often so full of Scripture and developed thought that I found it hard to retain everything by simply sitting and listening. This compelled me to begin taking notes. Even if I had no intentions to file the note for future reference, writing down key thoughts helped burn them into my memory much more effectively. It helped make the sermon an interactive, relational experience instead of simply a passive one.

Through writing, I have greatly improved at listening, learning, studying and memorizing God’s word, and it offers me another avenue to hear Him speak to me personally. It’s a helpful, tangible testimony to God’s grace to look back and see his Word preached throughout my life. It has helped me to see promptings in my soul that were worked out over a period of time to later bear fruit.

So let me ask you: how is your listening? We come to Church to get our marching orders from God, through his Word, through the preacher. What good is it to us if we simply show up on Sunday and have the message leave our minds as we leave the Church? We want to walk out each time knowing who God is, and how He wants us to respond. That is why we sit there fully engaged. That is why we listen. All the way through we are to be actively engaged, not by speaking, but by listening, and then planning out our obedience.

I challenge you to examine yourself on Sunday, as I examined myself, and make changes so that you are not simply a spectator, but a participant. How do you best listen so that you are able to apply what you hear and grow in your understanding of Him?

For me it’s most definitely writing.

I’ve learned to like it.

I’m now a fan.

By Paul Greenham

Dan’s recent sermon on Genesis 22 (from July 25) touches on what I consider to be some major themes in the Christian life. What stands out to me most clearly is the nature of Abraham’s faith, which was not at all blind, but rather banked on God’s proven character. What also stands out is the gravity of God’s command to Abraham and testing the degree of his faith by asking him to let go of the one thing most likely to be an idol: his son.

It seems to me that so much of life as a Christian is a battle for the affections for the heart. I’m often tempted to judge my progress or spiritual state according to what I do or don’t do (regretting sins, or being pleased with my righteous actions). But our actions only function at the symptomatic level; while they are helpful ways to consider what may be happening in the heart, they do not entirely reveal the battle for the heart. Why else would Jesus summarize all the law and the prophets with the command to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind? I consider the process of sanctification to be one of constant change in our affections towards God and away from idols.

I am often confronted with a desire for something to fill me or to help me escape and to take away my feelings of loneliness, meaninglessness or fear. This desire is frequently connected to my emotional state, and hence my affections. I’ve heard many excellent sermons about idolatry (Dan’s included), and it keeps coming back to this: I try to make a functional saviour out of almost anything. I exhaust all my options, and only after pushing and straining to find my hope in every activity and entertainment and yet continuing to feel the hunger, emptiness and uselessness of looking to anything other than God, for more than those things are designed to give, or capable of giving do I run to Him and find that for which I’ve been searching all along.

We not only need the gospel at the beginning of the Christian walk; we need it at every single point – and largely to remind ourselves continually that the battle is for our own hearts: for where and to whom we turn in the trials of life.

I believe God was reminding Abraham of Isaac’s status in his life. Isaac was most certainly a very beloved and cared for child, and the very proof of God’s fulfilled promise and his desire to bless Abraham, but in the end he was a gift, not the giver. Abraham’s faith that God’s promise of blessing through Isaac was not negated by God’s command to sacrifice Isaac and it demonstrated an amazing reliance on God’s faithfulness to his own promise Abraham showed faith in the consistency of God’s character and his ultimate substitutionary provision in the coming Lamb, as Dan explained in his sermon (you can find the sermon here: http://www.gracetoronto.ca/resources/sermons/?sermon_id=75) I am amazed by Abraham’s love for God. The affections of his heart were directed toward God and were based on his knowledge of, and belief in, God’s consistent character.

I have found in the times I do turn to God in earnest prayer for the fulfillment of my desires and needs (which I so often seek to be fulfilled by relationships, TV shows, or success), he really does give provide fulfillment. I long to go straight to him instead of running through the usual idols before laying my brokenness before him. Reflecting on Dan’s sermon, I have noticed a feedback loop in process, as the more we go to God up front, the more we learn to in his consistent faithfulness and ability to fulfill us and the more likely we are to seek him immediately in the future. This is the process of sanctification, as God changes the affections of our hearts to match the status he has already declared us to have in Christ.

By Ali Duyck

A personal reflection on prayer’s significance

I believe I am not alone in saying that there is a lot of “stuff” in my head that I deal with on a daily basis, some good, most not so good.  We live in a world that is constantly trying to persuade our thinking and when we are left to our own devices, fear, anxiety, envy, lust and pride, can set in.  Going to God in prayer is when we allow Him to change our thinking and help us to see things from His perspective. I have learned to view prayer as an opportunity to align my thoughts with God’s.  I am very thankful for the times I have started praying with an anxious heart and then have been blessed as my thoughts start transforming and I am praying for things I know could have only come from Him.

Some of the ways God has transformed my thoughts is in the ongoing battle in my head of comparing myself against others.  Others who are more beautiful, more “spiritual”, more capable, more athletic, more successful and the list goes on.  Only when I am alone with the Lord does He reveal that he has made me exactly as I am supposed to be and that in the midst of it, He is also transforming me to be more like Him.   When I go to Him in prayer, I believe I come to know myself deeper and accept the truth, as I see myself in light of Jesus.  I know I want everyone to believe that I’ve got things together and that my thoughts and intentions are pure and selfless, as they should be.  However, this facade becomes apparent when I am before God and I start to see how pride is at the root of my motives.  I am thankful that I can accept this about myself and trust that He is going to change my heart to be pure for His purpose, not my own.  I believe we are much more effective to serve Him here on earth when we come to a place of acceptance of who we are and hope for what He promises to do in us.

Although it is beneficial to us, we should also remember that prayer is for God’s glory. We glorify Him every time we humbly go before Him and submit our lives into His hands.  It is through this that we acknowledge that He is God, that He is Sovereign.  We glorify Him when we accept that His will be done in our lives, just as Jesus demonstrated through His words, saying to His Father, “not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42); and through His actions, when He went to the cross.

Ultimately, prayer is a gift that we have been given, a way to communicate with God.  I pray that God would bless each of us by revealing how prayer has changed us so far in our lives and to increase our desire to make it a part of our daily activities.

What better way to get to know each other than over food and a little friendly competition?

Launched this summer, the Connections Ministry introduced the ‘Grace Summer Games,’ as a way to provide an outlet for both existing friendships to deepen and new ones to form and develop.  Whether it’s been on a water-break, during the picnic after the game, or in the heat of the moment of catching the frisbee in an opponent’s face, we’ve been able to successfully see these friendships and new relationships taking place.  And that is what is really at the heart of the Connections Ministry…to see relationships form and then be further transformed by the Gospel impact of living life in community with one another.

Check out these pictures for a glimpse of the fun and action that took place at our first event, Ultimate Frisbee.

If you haven’t had the chance to come out yet, don’t worry it’s not too late!  Our last ‘Grace Summer Games’ of the summer is this Saturday, August 14th.  We’ll be playing a rousing game of Kickball (Soccer Baseball), followed by a ‘bring-your-own’ picnic in the park.   Location:  Christie Pits Park (Christie and Bloor)  Time:  Kickball Game 3-5p, Picnic 5-7p

For more information, click here.