Good Friends in Christ

Posted on by Shannon

Today is our annual Friends Day here at the Barrie Church of Christ and we’re pleased you are here. We have brought in a special speaker to encourage us (Jason Rollins) and we’ve put together a potluck lunch to enjoy at noon. We hope to get to know you.

Our church building has sat on this corner for 55 years. Just a couple of years after the building’s construction, we began building Grove Park Seniors Home right next door. While the home has become completely independent, we share the same property and accommodate each other as much as we can. The church has always been concerned about making friends with all kinds of people in the community.

Christianity is a religion that thrives not only on faith in Jesus Christ, but on friendship and brotherhood. Members here treat each other with love and respect because we share the same Truth and have been saved by it. As you can see from this bulletin, we meet three times a week for worship and Bible study for all who can come. We enjoy being together and share each other’s lives. The scriptures tell us we are “members one of another” (Romans 12:5). We try to practice this in practical ways as best we can.

Life would be dire without a few good friends. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one that this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Of course, Jesus was speaking about his upcoming death on the cross, but we can also learn that friends care about you, watch your back, and extend loyalty and sacrifice. Life is a lot easier with friends watching out for you. The apostle John sent a message to a threatened church and said, “Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name” (3 John 15). Christians are friends who bring emotional health to others.

We hope you enjoy your time with us today. If you are willing, we would be happy to share the Truths that have bound us together as brothers and sisters in Christ – spiritual friends. We’re open to it. It’s part of our mission. Will you accept our friendship?

– Tim Johnson

Known

Posted on by Shannon

Recently a major telephone company said they intend to track every phone call made, message written, TV program watched, and web site its customers visit. They intend to build a file on people so that they can know them thoroughly and understand their lives. Of course, their main intention is to sell people its products and services. We’re getting used to this kind of thing from large companies, but it makes us uncomfortable.

God also tells us that He wants to know us. He said, “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him” (1 Cor.8:2-3). Here, loveless knowledge is blamed for many problems. When we love God, the Lord loves us in return – and knows us. In Galatians 4:9 the writer scolded Christians for “turning back again to the weak and worthless elemental things” that tend to enslave people. They should do better, for, “you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God.”

The difference between a company desiring to know us and God knowing us is their view of our value. A company wants to sell; God wants to save. Those who track us want to make money; God knows us because He loves us. We want to be known by people who care about us, and that’s also God’s motivation. God’s knowledge of us is healthy. There’s an intimacy between Him and people who trust Him. He sees our intentions, flaws, cares and worries. He extends grace, forgiveness, kindness and love.

God’s knowledge of us is not to be feared. He is not irresponsible with what He knows, nor will He manipulate us for profit. He is our Father, and fathers want the best for their children.

“If anyone loves God, he is known by Him.”

Tim Johnson

A Heart for the Lost

Posted on by Shannon

The apostle Paul was a driven man. He said in Romans 1:15 that he was “eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” As far as we know, he had never visited that largest of first century cities, but he wanted to. The place teemed with people from all over the world and it would have been a natural place for the interest of an evangelist. He loved the lost and wanted to save them. This should be a prime motivation for the Lord’s church. Great congregations are always reaching out to the lost.               

Concern for the lost comes from God Himself.  In the book of Hosea God pictured His love for His wayward people like the love Hosea had for his wandering wife. “Therefore, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak kindly to her” (2:14). He longed to bring His people back home again. He even sent Jonah to preach to the dreaded people of Nineveh. Why? Because he cared for the lost and wanted to move them to repentance before He had to judge them.               

The rulers of Israel were scolded through Ezekiel because “the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost” (34:4). Shepherds must care.

Jesus kindly spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-45), then spent two more days in her city teaching its residents and creating believers. He could have easily skipped the place on his busy journey up north, but he stopped to save the lost.

The heart of the church needs to be tuned to the lost around us. It’s what Jesus wants to see in us. It’s how the church grows, for if we don’t care for the lost, we fail to reach them with the message of life. Yes, the lost can be frustrating when they refuse our interest in them, but we must continue to seek others. How many did Paul convert? Far less than he spoke to. But he rejoiced that he had managed to save some (1 Cor.9:22).

All of us were once lost, but somebody loved us and brought us to Jesus. Do that for someone else. It’s an obligation of love.

– Tim Johnson

The Baby in the Bushes

Posted on by Shannon

There’s nothing as heartwarming as the rescue of a young child. The news this week reported a long-awaited phone call between Mary Crabb of England and Harry Curtis of Ottawa. Harry’s father, Ernie, was a soldier in England in 1941. Out on patrol one day, he and two others heard the cry of a baby in the bushes beside a rural roadway near London. Apparently, the child had been abandoned right after birth. The soldiers quickly wrapped the baby girl in a shirt and sent her off to a hospital. The following year, she was adopted by a British family. Mary, now 77, grew up in a good home, eventually got married and had her own children and grandchildren. Back in Canada, Ernie always wondered about the baby he’d rescued and passed away without any answers; Mary always wondered what happened to her rescuers. With the help of an old photo, the pieces of the story were recently put together and the phone call soon put Mary together with Ernie’s son, Curtis. It was quite a conversation. Thanks to the quick thinking of a kind soldier in 1941, a child was given a normal life.

There’s a remarkably similar story in Ezekiel 16 about an abandoned child God rescued, brought back to good health, and raised to adulthood. It’s a figurative story of the kindness of God as he cared for the Israelites in captivity and brought them out into maturity as a nation. It’s worth reading, for it has repercussions for our own lives.

God takes hurt and struggling people who have been uncared for or abandoned and gives them new lives in Jesus Christ. What one of us hasn’t felt lost, mixed-up and hopeless? How many of us have felt the results of our own bad decisions, big mistakes and poor attitudes? It’s at that point that we can reach out to the Lord, for he’s waiting for us with a welcoming hand. He wants to forgive us and help us find our way. Eventually, like Mary Crabb, we can experience great lives.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heaven-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

– Tim Johnson

Commitment to the Truth

Posted on by Shannon

Now most Christians understand they need to be committed to the truth, but I’m talking about commitment to the truth about people. In our world today, it seems that someone’s reputation doesn’t matter anymore. False accusations and slander are easily thrown around and someone’s dignity is soiled.                

When Israel returned from Babylon and legally began to rebuild Jerusalem, her enemies didn’t like it. Ezra 4 tells us they offered to help with the construction, but the Jews saw through their false intentions and refused. Incensed, a letter was fired off to the Persian king Artaxerxes full of slander about the Jews. They claimed that the Jews were rebellious troublemakers and that when Jerusalem was completed, no taxes or tolls would be paid again. This caused a lot of hardship for the Jews and it took quite a while to legally exonerate themselves and get on with their work. A little slander, a little lack of respect for people’s reputations goes a long way to causing great troubles. Often, it’s because somebody didn’t get what they w

Joseph was thrown into jail because his boss’s wife accused him of rape (Gen.39:7-20). Stephen lost his life because certain jealous people couldn’t deal with his powerful preaching and they cooked up false accusations against him (Acts 6:9-12). And need I remind us that Jesus was crucified because of similar false accusations? (Luke 23:1-2).

We need to be committed to the truth about people. Give people an honest chance. Refuse to spread unfounded information of which you are unsure. Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members one of another.” We’re also told in Colossians 3:8, “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.”

We all want a good reputation. Let’s make sure we don’t inadvertently harm someone else’s.

– Tim Johnson