Excerpts From: The Messenger |
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The apostle Paul called such a legalistic keeping of rules a "yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1, KJV).
I read an amazing story some time ago from the late Dr. Bill Bright founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International. It was about a woman was married to a tyrant of a husband. He didn't like the way she kept house. He didn't like the way she ran the home. He didn't like the way she dressed. He constantly criticized her for everything. One day he handed her a list of 25 rules for her to follow. Oh, how she hated him!
You can imagine how frustrating it was to her to have to constantly check her list to see if she was pleasing him, and to stay out of trouble. She usually failed miserably, and each time she got a tongue-lashing. Then one day, much to her great joy, the abusive husband died.
Soon she fell in love with and married a wonderful, loving husband. They loved each other very much. She practically broke her neck to please him -- and even brought him breakfast in bed!
One day she ran across that old list, and the hatred for her old husband returned. But suddenly, she began to laugh! As she checked every item on the list, she realized that she was now doing all of these for her new husband and many more. And she did it with great joy because she loved him!
This was a great revelation to her, and for us as Christians it demonstrates a great spiritual truth concerning our relationship with God. There are many people who serve God and keep his commandments out of shear fear that God is a brutal tyrant, like that husband, just waiting for an excuse to punish us. It is important though to have fear for God in us, in the sense of reverence and respect, but not fear of some potential oppression from God. God does not abuse his children.
The pathway to God is not found by fear, or following a creed, developing moral character, or attending church. It is simply found in those words we all learned in Sunday School ?Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.? Simple trust and simple faith. The key here is understanding God's great loving nature and how much he loves us, so much that he sent his only begotten Son to die for us. When we understand that and accept this amazing love into our heart, then our service to him will be with joy not drudgery. This is the attitude of the heart that will bring us home to God, joy surpassing all understanding.
I would like to take this time to thank you folks who have helped in the past, and the present during our Annual Christmas Bazaar. This truly represents a serving attitude of the heart. Thank you in advance for all the hard work for the up coming Bazaar. I would like to say that your generosity of time and energy is greatly appreciated.
God's peace be with you all.
Your friend and pastor,
Pastor Samuel King-Kabu
Our music director, Thomas Leslie was selected to be the Tenor soloist for the Bach Cantata 80 (the Reformation Cantata) in Kitchener on October 23. Ellen Dahl joined Ermine, Anne and Jette for the mass choir. With them (and Thomas, of course) St. Ansgar?s church was well represented in Kitchener for this important Synod event. It was the celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Eastern Synod and the 100th Anniversary of the Waterloo Seminary that was being feted at St. Peter's Lutheran church.
On Saturday night, October 22, Thomas had a solo recital at St. Stephen?s Lutheran church, which was attended by Rosa, her daughter and son- in-law and four friends, as well as Ellen, Ermine, Anne, Jette and their billet hostesses, Barbara and Brenda. Thomas sang a very varied program of songs in several languages to his enthusiastic audience.
The concert on October 23 was recorded for the Kitchener/Waterloo CTV station and will be broadcast locally on Sunday, October 30.
Bishop Michael Pryse participated in the service and was on hand to greet each and every chorister at the end of the concert, and thanked them for their participation. The musicians in the orchestra were brilliant!
The St. Ansgar's delegation had a wonderful weekend. They were given tours of the neighbouring areas, had a German style lunch at the Concordia restaurant in downtown Kitchener, and they were thoroughly pampered by their hostesses. We were impressed by all the churches, especially all the Lutheran churches, in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. More churches, we decided, than in Montreal, which has always been known for its many churches.
The trip home was rather rainy, unfortunately, so we decided not to go on the 1000 Islands Parkway on the way home. But the weather in Kitchener was pretty good for most of the weekend, while we were there.
Web Page prepared by:
Roger Kenner
& Jette Blair.
Content-New Topics Last Updated: 2011/12/13
St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church - Montreal