Greetings from Victor

Dear Friends at Knox,

Happy to be able to say that my third semester at Presbyterian College is now complete; finals ended on Dec 18th. It was something of a tough semester which included some rather challenging courses. Still in all, I believe everything went well. I am now at the half way point of my M.Div studies, with 1-1/2 years done and (hopefully) 1-1/2 years to go. The winter semester begins on Jan 6th, so I have a couple of weeks to enjoy the holidays with my family. My sister and niece will be coming to Montreal from Oregon for a week's visit, so it will be an especially nice Christmas for me.

I very much appreciate the cards, letters, and encouragement I have received from you over the course of this past semester. It helps to be able to keep in touch even though I cannot be there with you all. Although I have no definite plans to come to Toronto at the moment, I expect to be able to worship with you again before too much longer in the coming year.

My thoughts and prayers are with you as we begin this holiday season. Allow me to wish you all a blessed Christmas and joyful New Year!

In Christ,

Victor

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people ( Lk 2:10).

Merry Christmas

On behalf of my family, I would like to wish our Knox family a blessed Christmas!  We are so happy to be with you, serving and worshipping God together! 

May God bless you as we go forward into 2014!

Blessings, Emma. 

Service cancellation

Hello everyone,

The service for today is cancelled.  Stay safe! Blessings, Emma.

Longest night

Christmas is supposed to be the 'most wonderful time of the year,' but for many people, this is not the case.  Instead, Christmas is a time of longing and sorrow.  Longing for loved ones who are no longer with us.  Longing for relationships to be healed.  Longing for the angst of life to disappear. 

In Matthew 2:1-6, we read:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

As we read this familiar story of the wise men, we realize that they also experienced longing in their lives.  Their search also led them into unchartered territory.  They did not know what the future held, but they did know is that they must follow the star. 

 

Their longing to follow this mysterious star in the east was so strong that it drove them to leave their homeland.  It drove them to leave their families and all that gave them comfort and a sense of stability.  It drove them into the path of King Herod who wanted them silenced. 

 

They took these risks not for a king in a royal palace, but for a helpless baby who was born to parents of no consequence.  And how did they know that they would find what they were looking for?  Would this baby really be the King of the Jews?  Would he truly be the shepherd of God’s people?  The wise men looked up into the heavens and God revealed to them these truths through the mysteries of the night sky.  And so they went in search of a king. 

 

We are also in search of this king.  When we grieve, we are desperately searching for something – or someone - to hold onto in the darkness.  Someone who is real and true and will carry us when we have no strength left.  Someone who will guide us when we forget to how to put one foot in front of the other. We long for God’s healing presence in our midst because we realize that none of the world’s ‘fixes’ will do the trick.  The world has nothing to offer that can truly heal the pain that we feel. 

And so we journey with the wise men in search of the star because we long for the same thing that they were searching for over 2000 years ago.  We long for the Messiah.  The Prince of Peace.  The One whose love has the power to give us comfort and to heal our broken hearts. 

 

May we experience the hope of the wise men that points to Jesus Christ, who is our saviour, redeemer, and friend.  May we experience the perseverance of the wise men to continue on our journey of grief and healing even when we enter unchartered territory.  May we find the courage of the wise men to travel with them and seek out the babe in the manger. Amen.

Cancellation of Prayer Meeting

Hello,

The prayer meeting for December 15th at 9 a.m. has been cancelled due to poor weather conditions. 

Blessings, Emma.

Church on its Knees

So where do we go from here? We all know that prayer is a fundamental part of our relationship with God as Father, Son, and Spirit. We all acknowledge that prayer is a dialogue with God that requires us both to open up to God and to listen for his voice in our lives. We all know that without prayer, we will lose our focus on God.

And so, I invite you to join me on a journey. Starting in November, we will be having a monthly prayer meeting here at Knox where we will pray for each other, the church, and the world. The first meeting will take place on Sunday November 17^th from 9:00 – 9:45 a.m. and we meet on the third Sunday of the month moving forward. All are welcome to join me as we grow together as a community through prayer. That said, I do realize that a prayer meeting is not for everyone. We all pray in different ways so I do not want to exclude people from being connected to the church through prayer, so if you are not interested in attending a prayer meeting, but would still like to be engaged in this ministry please let me know. Please let me know by phone or email (aka not after worship today!) so that I can have a list of people who are interested and we can determine the best way forward. 

I know that prayer works. I have felt the power of prayer in my life, especially in the last year as I completed my studies and sought a call in a congregation. There is an invisible cloud of witnesses who have been praying for me to discern the right place for me to serve. Family. Friends. Classmates. Members of my extended church family. And I know that there have been people praying in this congregation for some time to find the right minister. I know that God has called me here in your midst for a purpose. And so we are going to P.U.S.H. – pray until something happens –to pray for God’s spirit to move through us as we see what exciting things God has in store for us.

Yours in Christ, Emma. 

 

 

Praying through Song

One of the things that I love doing when preparing for worship is picking the hymns. Music is an important part of my life and faith and so I know how important music is as we worship our triune God. Music can also help us as we pray. Both the words of beloved hymns and the tunes can lift us up as we pray to God. William P. Merrill said that “there is nothing in the world so much like prayer as music is.” And I agree with him 100%!

If you think about your favorite hymns, you will find many direct and indirect references to prayer. These indirect references can be found when we think about the P.R.A.Y. acronym (praise, repent, another, yourself). When we sing a song of praise at the beginning of the service, it is a prayer of thanksgiving for all that God has done for us. When we sing a song of discipleship at the end of the service, it is a prayer both for ourselves and for others.

The final part in my sermon series on prayer will be tomorrow and we will be talking about the acronym P.U.S.H.  – pray until something happens. Even though we do not know God’s plan for our lives and our world, Jesus encourages us to pray continuously and not to give up hope. The closing hymn that we will be singing tomorrow is a prayer of praise because of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. It is one of my favorite hymns and it is called “My hope is built on nothing less.”  Here are the words for this song:

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide his face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]

His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]

When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne. [Refrain]

Yours in Christ, Emma.

P.S. Here’s a link to the song on YouTube. (We’re singing a different tune tomorrow…)

Resting in God

Today has been a day of rest for me, so my apologies for posting on the blog so late in the day! This day of rest included doing errands, having lunch with an old friend, and enjoying dinner with my family and church family. It may not sound restful to some of you, but it was for me! 

When we rest in God through prayer, it is very different kind of resting.  It brings peace and comfort because we lift up our cares to God. This can be scary because it involves trusting in God’s divine will for us. Our resting in God means that we have given up control of our lives to the creator of the universe. 

One of my favourite stories from the Old Testament about trusting God can be found in the book of Ruth. The story of Ruth and Naomi is not a happy one. These three women – Naomi and her 2 daughter-in-laws, Ruth and Orpah - were brought together by marriage and bound together by tragedy. When tragedy struck, it struck completely and harshly through the loss of their husbands and because of a famine in their land. In their patriarchal society, the loss of their husbands made them social outcasts. They went to the end of the line. They became nobodies. 

Naomi tried to send her daughter-in-laws away, but Ruth refused. She told her ‘wherever you go I will go and wherever you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16) By staying with Naomi, Ruth was taking a huge risk.

But God was with them and provided for them. As a dutiful daughter of both of Naomi and God, Ruth found rest in God because of her ability to trust in Him.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28

Quotes on Prayer

As I sit at my local public library writing my sermon for Sunday, I thought I would share some quotes about God answering our prayers.

 

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
Saint Teresa of Avila, Roman Catholic nun

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
Epicurus, Greek philosopher

 

I certainly know that I would not be able to survive if it were not for the fact that I am being upheld by the prayers of so many people.
Desmond Tutu, social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop

 

Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.
Sarah Ban Breathnach, author

 

The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course.
Billy Graham, evangelist and preacher

 

I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.
Jean Ingelow, English poet and author

 

My mother was a Sunday school teacher. So I am a byproduct of prayer. My mom just kept on praying for her son.
Steve Harvey, comedian and TV personality

 

Yours in Christ, Emma.

 

I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. Isaiah 63:7

 

A Celtic Prayer

Here is a beautiful prayer from the Iona community in Scotland.

You are above me O God
You are beneath
You are in air
You are in earth
You are beside me
You are within
O God of heaven
You have made your home on earth
In the broken body of Creation
Kindle within me
A love for you in all things.
Amen.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. Luke 1:68

Four Demands of Prayer

As I was tidying up this weekend in preparation for friends coming over, I noticed my textbook* for a course in Reformed Worship sitting in the midst of all of my theology books (so many books, so little time!!)  I took it off the shelf and sure enough, there is a whole chapter on prayer!  How we pray as individuals and as a community was important to the reformers because their understanding of prayer helped shape how we worship today in the Protestant tradition. 

This chapter outlined 4 demands that prayer requires of us, including:
1. We have to show up! (In other words, we need to make time to pray).
2. We have to pay attention. 
3. We have to tell the truth.
4. We must look for the outcome. 

The final point resonates with me this week as I prepare to preach on the challenge of maintaining a prayer relationship with God even when things aren't going the way you want them to. 

Yours in Christ, Emma.

Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer. Psalm 4:1

* Once a librarian, always a librarian! I couldn't post this without giving you the full citation for the book - Howard Rice and James Huffstutler. Reformed Worship. Louisville: Geneva Press, 2001.

Listening for God

“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”  Mother Teresa

This quote from Mother Theresa is challenging because we like to be in control of our lives, don’t we? I, like many people, prefer to be in the driver’s seat when I am in a car and I think that all of us would much rather be in the driver’s seat of our lives rather than letting someone else be in control. By putting ourselves in the hands of God, we are in effect surrendering to him and therefore, we have to acknowledge and accept his divine will. This means not only giving up control of who drives the car, but also where the car is going! As hard as this is to do, it is actually quite liberating when you let yourself fall into God’s hands and listen for his voice in your heart. 

As I prepared in the fall of 2011 to resign from my full-time job in order to finish my studies at seminary, I was very nervous about the future would hold. As a woman with a family, this decision affected more than just me and I was worried. But God was in control and it was liberating to watch the Holy Spirit move through our lives! This time was certainly a humbling experience for me as God manifested himself in many ways throughout my journey towards ordination and I wish that I had been able to trust him sooner! 

Our ability (and inability) to surrender all to God has to do with trusting God and listening for him.  Sometimes that comes as a loud gong or a quiet whisper but however it comes, we need to be open to listening for the presence of the Spirit in our midst. Our conversations with God in prayer will help us build this trust so that we can listen with a willing heart.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

Martin Luther on Prayer

Today is Reformation Sunday when we celebrate our reformed heritage through the Protestant Reformation. I thought that it would only be fitting to share with you something that Martin Luther wrote about prayer in 1535. He wrote a small booklet called “A Simple Way to Pray” for his barber and friend Peter Beskendorf. In his opening to this booklet, Luther tells his friend, “I will tell you as best I can what I do personally when I pray. May our dear Lord grant to you and to everybody to do it better than I!”

Luther wrote Beskendorf that he used the Bible as his guide to prayer and he often prayed the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Creed. He also recommended using the words of Christ or of Paul or the Psalms to pray.  

What I like about Luther’s writing is his remarks about saying Amen at the end of a prayer:  

“Finally, mark this, that you must always speak the Amen firmly. Never doubt that God in his mercy will surely hear you and say “yes” to your prayers. Never think that you are kneeling or standing alone, rather think that the whole of Christendom, all devout Christians are standing there beside you and you are standing among them in a common, united petition which God cannot disdain. Do not leave your prayer without having said or thought, “Very well, God has heard my prayer, this I know as certainty and a truth.” That is what Amen means.” 

Amen! 

Yours in Christ, Emma. 

 “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Martin Luther

Poem about Prayer

I have had a few people send me poems about prayer since I started this sermon series, so I thought that I would share this with you.  It is a powerful little poem that reminds us that God is always with us and that prayer is an important part of our relationship with Him!

The Difference by Grace L. Naessens

I got up early one morning

And rushed right into the day
I had so much to accomplish
That I didn’t take time to pray

Problems just tumbled about me

And heavier became each task
“Why doesn’t God help me?” I wondered
He answered, “You didn’t ask”
 
I wanted to see joy and beauty
But the day toiled on gray and bleak
I wondered why God didn’t show me
He said, You didn’t seek”

I tried to come into God’s presence

I used all my keys at the lock
God gently and lovingly chided
“My child you didn’t knock”

I woke up early this morning

And paused before entering the day
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray

Yours in Christ, Emma.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. Ephesians 1:17-19

Prayer of Comfort

Yesterday our congregation lost a long-time member so I thought that it would be only fitting to post a passage from Scripture that gives us comfort and strength in our grief and assures us of our hope through Jesus Christ.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:1-6)

This is the passage that I read to this member earlier this week as she squeezed my hand. May God be with her family as they grieve her passing and may they find strength and comfort as we lift them up in prayer.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

I love this Psalm because it captures the longing that we have for God as well as the hope that we have in Him. When we are hungry for God's presence in our lives, He is always there. 

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”

These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
(Psalm 42:1-6)

Yours in Christ, Emma.

Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:7b-8

One of the most challenging verses of the Bible for me is Psalm 46:10a which says "Be still and know that I am God!" While I believe with all my heart, mind, and soul that God is God, it is the 'be still' part that I struggle with. I am always on the go and even when I am at home, I am hardly ever still. This is because of who I am and because of the society in which we live. Being busy is seen as a good thing. It is almost a status symbol these days - the busier I am, the more important I am. This is true in our personal and work lives and believe it or not - in our church lives too!

But we need to heed the advice of the Psalmist and listen for God in our midst. Being still and taking time in prayer to listen for God's movement in our lives and in the life of the church is crucial for us to do. In our prayer lives, this means taking time to pray when nothing else is going on and to listen for the Holy Spirit. Is this hard to do? Yes. Is it necessary? Absolutely! If we don't do this, how will be able to figure out what God has in store for us? 

Yours in Christ, Emma.

But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

With our technological issues now resolved, I have no excuse but to keep the commitment that I made in church on Sunday!

One of the most powerful ways to pray, especially when you are not sure what to say to God, is to pray using the Bible. There are hundreds of prayers in the Bible and in the coming weeks, I will be sharing some of them with you. Even though the prayers contained in the Bible come from a particular individual from a very different time and place from us, that doesn't mean that these prayers aren't relevant for our lives today. 

The Psalms are a wonderful place to start on a journey of praying through Scripture. Take Psalm 23 as an example. This Psalm is one of the most well known passages of the Bible, but have you ever thought of it as a prayer? It is a prayer of praise to God who is with us as our Shepherd in the midst of trials of life. The Psalmist praised God for providing for his needs and leading him in the right path. God is also praised for protecting us against our enemies and walking with us in the shadow of the valley of death. Psalm 23 is a prayer of thanksgiving that reminds us of the assurance and hope that we have through our triune God.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.
Romans 1:8

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of blogging about prayer, but due to technical difficulties with our blog, today is day one!

During part one of a three part series on prayer, we talked about how the Lord's Prayer is a wonderful model for us to use in our own prayer lives.  I shared an acronym - P.R.A.Y. - that is a very helpful (and easy!) way to remember how to pray.  If you don't know what it stands for, check out my sermon on our web site. 

Here are a few other acronyms:
ACTS = Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication
APE = Always Pray Everyday
ASAP = Always Say A Prayer
CHAT = Confess, Honour, Ask, and Thank (courtesy of Jim Nicodem, author of Prayer Coach)

Yours in Christ, Emma.

I thank my God every time I remember you,  constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:3-6