After many months of Sunday Zoom meetings, it’s great to be back at the church building where we can worship along side of each other. I’m grateful for computer programs like Zoom – and we may have to use it again – but nothing works better than a physical meeting.

Let’s not forget that Covid-19 still rages all around us. The medical people are warning us about the strength of the third wave. Many restrictions remain in place. Some families among us long to travel and visit relatives in the United States, but that isn’t possible. Some people are suffering from poor mental health due to confinement. It’s been over a year of restrictions, cautions, and masks. It seems endless. We are impatient as we wait for things to improve.

I want to turn our attention to a little flower that is blooming in my back yard. Wild crocuses must be he first flower that blooms in early spring. In some places in Canada, they will push right up through the melting snow. The one in my yard waits until a good patch of grass is snow-free before it opens up. These flowers amaze me because they spring up immediately after our typically long, brutal winter. Likewise, spring birds have invaded my neighbourhood. Cardinals and Robins start their loud chorus early in the morning (who can sleep?!).  Nature doesn’t seem to care about the pandemic. Life surges all around us after many months of freezing temperatures.

My point in all this? If flowers and birds can emerge after a whole season of horrible weather, we can overcome our lengthy season of pandemic hardships too. Nature knows how to do it. We should too.

Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-26? (And what good is a bulletin article without a scripture?) “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink; Nor for your body as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body then clothing? Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

Our first in-house church assembly yesterday proves it. Welcome back!

– Tim Johnson

It is said of Enoch that he walked with God for 300 years (see Genesis 5:22). God was so pleased with him that he took him straight to heaven, skipping death. Walking with God seems to be very important. To do it for 300 years speaks of commitment and dedication.

Health experts have been urging us for years as Canadians to get out and walk. It keeps our hearts and lungs healthy, enables our muscles and limbs to stay strong, and even fights depression and melancholy. For many people it’s also a social event because they talk and catch up with friends as they cover the miles.

To walk with God is not an exercise event. It’s a way of life during which a person pays attention to God every day, speaks with Him in prayer, consults with Him through His word, and develops a strong relationship with the Almighty. Like Enoch did over time, we learn more and more about God and come to love Him for all His goodness. Genesis 6:9 tells us “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.” He was unlike the sin-filled people of his day. Walking with God made him into a great spiritually minded man.

The disciples of Jesus walked with Him all over Palestine. They covered the territory all around the Sea of Galilee, down the Jordan valley, throughout Judea and Jerusalem, Samaria, and even up through Tyre in Phoenicia. They must have been healthy, rigorous people, but I’m sure they tired of traveling so much, especially on foot. But Jesus talked as they walked every day, discussed all kinds of things together, shared meals, and dealt with the multitudes. And often the 12 were mesmerized by his miracles of healing, mastery over nature, and authority over the demons. Their walk with the Master changed their lives.

Physical exercise will keep our bodies healthy. Walking with God is more of a spiritual experience, strengthening our lives – body, soul and spirit. Paul told Timothy, “…for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

Go and walk with God. Take someone with you.

– Tim Johnson

I’m talking about Apollos. Unfortunately, he’s only mentioned in just seven passages of the New Testament. Paul never wrote an inspired book to him like he did for Timothy and Titus. And Apollos was not given the role of writing any of the New Testament books, although some believe the book of Hebrews may have been his. But the small window of information we do have about him is enough to find great encouragement.

The lengthiest piece about him is found in Acts 18:24-28, which tells us he was a Jew born in Alexandria, Egypt. The city was renown for its scholars, schools, and its great library, and it would seem natural that eloquent Apollos would come from there. He bursts into New Testament history when he visited Ephesus and began teaching in its synagogue. He fervently believed in Jesus Christ, having been instructed by followers of John the Baptist and his temporary baptism of repentance. In the synagogue audience were Priscilla and Aquila who confronted him with a more accurate knowledge of the way of God. Acts 18 implies he accepted their thoughts and made any necessary changes.

With encouragement from the young Ephesian church, Apollos went to Corinth and helped the new congregation there, and “he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (18:28). The man’s zeal and persuasive ability impressed not only the church in Corinth, but also the Jews of the city. In fact, Paul reveals in 1 Cor.1:12 and 3:5-6 that some members of the church were idolizing him, and division was beginning to happen in Corinth. No doubt Apollos was as upset about this as Paul. It seems that Apollos later returned to Ephesus where Paul encouraged him to consider going back to Corinth with some other traveling Christians, but he declined (1 Cor.16:12). He probably didn’t want to stir up any more division. The last we read of Apollos is in Titus 3:13 where Paul urged Titus in Crete to help him on his way to another location to preach.

Good preachers are in demand, but how precarious their position can be. Apollos was educated and articulate, but he had the humility to accept correction about the truth. He was impressive but would not ride the wave of popularity. Above all he was zealous for the Lord and modeled his life after Him. What a great example for all of us from just a few verses in the New Testament.

– Tim Johnson

Freedom is the vaunted prize of all western countries. Politicians croon over it. Songs are written about it. Universities debate it. Millions have lost their lives to secure it. We all need to be thankful for it. There’s an obvious price paid for freedom, for history shows it had to be wrenched from the controlling few.

The New Testament book of Galatians is all about freedom. The word is used twice by the apostle Paul in it’s five chapters, and liberty once. Like political freedom, religious freedom also came with a price – the sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This kind of freedom could not be achieved by man alone. God’s Son came to earth to give it to us with the ultimate sacrifice.

The apostle said, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free” (5:1). He urged us to “stand firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” We are not only free from sin – its practice and consequences – but also from the law. Law in Galatians is the dependence on human works to achieve our own salvation. We need freedom from it because we can never reach its requirements. This is why the Law of Moses, as great as it was, could never save the Jews (2:16). Jesus set us free by grace. We certainly do works, but we do them out of gratefulness to God and concern for others. Paul explained it this way, “faith working through love” (5:6).

The world gets freedom mixed up. It thinks we should be free from any self-control or moral value. We make a big mistake when we think freedom is “all about me.” That leads to enslavement to sin and disaster. Paul warns, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (5:13). Freedom always demands self-control and respect. That keeps us from “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strive, jealousy…” (v19-21). Rather, mature freedom fosters “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” (5:22-24).

What Jesus gave us is worth preserving and protecting. We let no man take it from us, nor will we fool with it and destroy it. Freedom demands our sacrifice and obedience to God.

– Tim Johnson