December 2010 Publication

Phylis Dryden penned the following poem relating to Christmas;

He came to grace a manger late one night --
Infant Shepherd who would lead the world from sin.


A stable's warmth was all the shelter he could find.
All other rooms were taken in the inn.


Angels sped to lowly shepherds in the fields
and sang great news that left them stunned and awed.


They left their flocks to see the precious child, sweet Shepherd,
and the Holy Lamb of God.


They found their King on humble throne of straw,
these witnesses who heard the herald's call,

and then the shepherds knew the awesome truth --
this newborn Lamb would live and die for all.


Not merely for the rich who later came, 
the golden, gemmed, and all the precious pearled.


but for the poor, the struggling, humble, starved.
the Christmas Lamb was born to save the world.

I read about a missionary who got lost in an African jungle - nothing around him but bush and a few cleared places.  He found a native hut and asked the native if he could get him out.  The native said he could. 
"All right,"  said the missionary,  "show me the way."
The native said, "Walk," so they walked and hacked their way through unmarked jungle for more than an hour.  The missionary got worried.
"Are you quite sure this is the way?  Where is the path?"
The native said,  "Bwana, in this place there is no path.  I am the path."

Jesus said  "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."   John  14:6.

Have you made Him your path to life?

November 2010 Publication

Once again it is that time of the year when we remember our war veterans with a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for their sacrificial role in allowing us to live in a peaceful country.  Thank you.

In thinking about war, I believe it would be fair to say that hatred toward others plays a big part in fighting wars.  Then, as I thought about warfare, I also thought about hatred that is displayed to individuals that have made us angry.

The following are some quotes that relate to this subject:

"Hate is a prolonged form of suicide."

"I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him."

"Contempt is a kind of gangrene, which if it seizes one part of a character corrupts all the rest."

I read a remarkable account of two commanders who were responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbour and the bombing of Hiroshima.  In the recent past, these two men met face to face and embraced each other in love and forgiveness.  God's forgiveness to us gives us the desire and power to forgive others.  Didn't Jesus teach us to pray asking God's forgiveness for our debts in proportion to the way we forgive other theirs?  Oh how liberating it is to experience the forgiveness of our own sins and then offer that to those who have wronged us.

Pastor John Giesbrecht

October 2010 Publication

It's amazing what you can be thankful for if you have an attitude of gratitude.

The proprietor of a store which had recently been burglarized met a friend on the street.  
"I am sorry to hear about the robbery," the friend said.  "Did you lose much?"
The storekeeper shrugged.  "Some.  But it would have been worse if the burglar had broken in the night before."
"Why?" the friend asked.
"Well, you see," said the storekeeper, "just the day of the robbery I marked everything down twenty percent."

On a more serious note, here are some verses of a song that prime the pump of a grateful heart.

Thank you for giving me the morning

Thank you for every day that's new,

Thank you that I can know my worries can be cast on You.

Thank you for all my sisters, brothers,

Thank you for all mankind who live.

Thank you for even greatest enemies I can forgive.

Thank  you, I have my occupation;

Thank you for every pleasure small,

Thank you for music, light and gladness, thank you for them all.

Thank you for my little sorrows;

Thank you for every kindly word,

Thank you that everywhere your guidance always can be heard.

Thank you, I see Your Word has meaning;

Thank you, I know your Spirit's here,

Thank you, because You love all people, those both far and near.

Thankful people are enjoyable to be around.  Are you one of them?

Pastor John Giesbrecht

September 2010 Publication

A leading citizen was stopped by a panhandler.  "Listen, buddy," the leading citizen said,  "why don't you try working for a living?  After all, work never killed anybody."
"You're wrong, friend," the panhandler said.  "I've lost two wives that way."

Another man was approached by a panhandler;  "Hey Mac, gimme a buck will ya?"
The man asked  "Aren't you ashamed to stand in the street begging for money?"
"Listen"  he answered,  "Whattya want me to do; open up an office?"

Labour Day is designed for people who work hard at their jobs and are entitled to a well deserved day off.  (I was wondering whether the hard working homemaker gets a break from all the responsibilities of running a home.)

The Bible has much to say about being conscientious in doing what we do, regardless of what that may be.  For example, Solomon tells us  "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might"   Ecclesiastes  9:10.  He also tells us to learn work lessons from the industrious ant.  It is anything but lazy.

How about you, are you content with mediocrity in what you do, or do you get satisfaction from a job well done?

Having said that though, the Bible makes it very clear that we cannot work to gain forgiveness of sin.  That work was done for us by Jesus Christ.  We obtain favor with God through faith in His Son.  Have you trusted in His finished work for you?

Pastor John Giesbrecht

August 2010 Publication

Someone has well said;  "Your temper is one of your most valuable possessions.  Don't lose it".  None of us need to look very far to see the negative effects of uncontrolled anger.  Take for example this classified ad:
Wedding dress for sale, never worn.  Will trade for .38 caliber pistol.

ANGER WON'T FIX ITSELF ... like a flat tire or dirty diaper.  I read about an eagle that swooped to the ground one day, catching a weasel in its powerful talons.  But when it flew away, its wings inexplicably went limp and it dropped to the ground like a lifeless doll.  As it turned out, the weasel had bitten its attacker in midflight, killing the proud eagle as it flew.  If we cling to an attitude of anger or jealousy, it will, like the weasel, sink its teeth into us when we least expect it.

The Bible has a lot to say about anger and its devastating results.  It also tells us how we can exercise victory over it, with help from the One, "Who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy."  Psalm  103:8.

Is it time for you to start trusting the only One who can help you?

Pastor John Giesbrecht

July 2010 Publication

For this month, let's think about learning and teaching.

The first real confusion in a child's life is when he decides girls are better than frogs but he isn't sure why.

Sometime ago there was a teacher who celebrated her eightieth birthday.  It proved to be a marvelous occasion, highlighted by the presence of a great number of her former students.  It seemed that she taught school in one of the worst sections of Baltimore.  Before she came to the school to teach there had been repeated instances of juvenile crime and delinquency.  When she began her work there came a change.  The change in time became noticeable with so many of her students turning out to be good citizens, men and women of good character.  Some became doctors, others lawyers, educators, ministers, honorable craftsmen, and skilled technicians.  It was no accident, therefore, that on important anniversaries like her eightieth birthday she was remembered with gratitude and love from a great number of her students.


A newspaper got wind of this celebration and sent a reporter to interview her.  He asked, among other things, what was her secret that made her teaching so rewarding?  She said; "Oh, I don't know.  When I look at the young teachers in our schools today, so well-equipped with training and learning, I realize that I was ill-prepared to teach, had nothing to give but love.

All through our lives we need to be aware of impacting someone else's life from a heart of love.

Pastor John Giesbrect

June 2010 Publication

A little girl was showing he playmate her new home.  "This is daddy's den,"  she explained as they entered one room.  "Does your daddy have a den?"
"No," was the answer, "my pop just growls all over the house."

It is said of Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing.  The day was fixed in his adult mind, and he often reflected upon many of the things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experience together.  After having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell's father kept and determine what had been said about the fishing trip from the parental perspective.  Turning to that date, the reader found only one sentence entered:  "Gone fishing today with my son; day wasted."

Someone has said  "Many a son has lost his way among strangers because his father was too busy to get acquainted with him."

A man and his young son were climbing a mountain.  They came to a place where the climbing was difficult and even dangerous.  The father stopped to consider which way he should go.  He heard the boy behind him say,  "Choose the good path, Dad; I'm coming right behind you!"

The Bible gives several instructions as to our parental roles.  Here is one challenge taken from the New Living Translation.  "And now a word to you fathers:  "Don't make your children angry by the way you treat them.  Rather bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord."  That child or grandchild is very blessed.

Pastor John Giesbrecht

May 2010 Publication

A cartoon in the Saturday Evening Post showed a young boy about five or six years old talking on the telephone, saying, "Mom is in the hospital, the twins and Roxie and Billie and Sally and the dog and me and Dad are all home alone."


A small boy went to the lingerie department of a store to purchase a gift for his mother.  He bashfully told the clerk that he wanted to buy a slip for his mom but he didn't know her size.  The lady explained that it would be helpful if he could describe her--was she fat, thin, short, tall?  The youngster replied, "Well, she's just about perfect."  So the clerk sent him home with a size 34.  A few days later, the mother came to exchange the gift, as it was too small.  She needed a size 52!  Just about perfect!


When Robert Ingersoll, the notorious skeptic, was in his heyday, two college students went to hear him lecture.  As they walked down the street after the lecture, one said to the other, "Well, I guess he knocked the props out from under Christianity, didn't he?"  The other said,  "No, i don't think he did.  Ingersoll did not explain my mother's life, and until he can explain my mother's life I will stand by my mother's God."


Abraham Lincoln said "No man is poor who had a godly mother."  "My own mother had only four weeks of formal education, but I will be eternally grateful for the legacy of faith in a personal Savior she so eloquently lived out."

Pastor John Giesbrecht

April 2011 Publication

A few years ago a submarine sand off Provincetown.  As soon as possible divers descended.  They walked about the disabled ship endeavoring to find some signs of life within.  At last they heard a gentle tapping.  Listening intently they recognized the dots and dashes of the Morse code.  These were the words spelled out  "Is there hope?"  "IS THERE HOPE?"  This is the constant cry of humanity and Easter is the answer to that cry.


As a missionary finished preaching in a market place in one of the villages of northern India, a Mohammedan stepped up to him and said:  "You must admit that we have one thing you have not, and it is better than anything you have."


"And what is it you have?"


"When we go to Mecca."  said the Mohammedan,  "we at least find a coffin, But when you Christians go to Jerusalem, your Mecca, you find nothing but an empty grave."

Smilingly, the missionary explained,  "That is just the difference.  Mohammed is dead and in his coffin.  And all other systems of religion and philosophy are in their coffins.  But Christ is risen, and all power in Heaven and on earth is given to Him.  He is alive forevermore!"

When Jesus Christ died such a humiliating death on the cross for us.  He demonstrated the Father's love for us, when he rose from the grave he proved he also had power to forgive our sins and provide eternal hope.  Have you put your faith in him?

Pastor John Giesbrecht

April 2010 Publication

The bodies of the last Czar of Russian and his family were discovered in 1979, but the finder feared to tell of it until 1989.

Everyone thought the bodies of the royal family had been destroyed by acid.  The finder feared that the knowledge of the discovery would not be welcomed by the Communist government, so he kept quiet for ten years.  In contrast, when the disciples found that the body of Jesus was not in the tomb, they immediately told everyone everywhere.

A little boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon.  Suddenly out of nowhere a bumble bee few in the car window.  Since the little boy was deathly allergic to bee stings, he became petrified.  But the father quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then released it.  But as soon as he let it go, the young son became frantic once again as it buzzed by the little boy.  His father saw his panic-stricken face.  Once again the father reached out his hand, but this time he pointed to his hand.  There still stuck in his skin was the stinger of the bee.  "Do you see this?"  he said. "You don't need to be afraid anymore.  I've taken the sting for you," 

And this is the message of Easter.  We do not need to be afraid of death anymore.  Christ faced death for us.  And by His victory, we are saved from sin.  Christ has taken the sting!  First Corinthians 15:22 asks:   "Where, oh death, is your sting?"  Christ has taken the stinger for us.  He has risen!  Fear is gone.  New life is ours.

Here is trusting that the Easter message will have a huge impact on your life, and your eternity.

Pastor John Giesbrecnt

March 2011 Publication

The following true story helps us take a hard look at ourselves when it comes to judging others before we have all the facts.

A woman was flying from Seattle to San Francisco.  Unexpectedly, the plane was diverted to Sacramento along the way.  The flight attendant explained that there would be a delay, and if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft the plane would re-board in 50 minutes.


Everybody got off the plane except one lady who was blind.  The man had noticed her as he walked by and could tell the lady was blind because he Seeing Eye dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of her throughout the entire flight.


He could also tell she had flown this very flight before because the pilot approached her, and calling her by name, said,  "Kathy, we are in Sacramento for almost an hour.  Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?"


The blind lady replied, 'No thanks, but maybe Buddy would like to stretch his legs.'


All the people in the gate area came to a complete standstill.  When they looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with a Seeing Eye dog!  The pilot was even wearing sunglasses.  People scattered.  They not only tried to change planes, but they were trying to change airlines!

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ will be the final and fair judge.  Are you prepared to stand before Him?

Pastor John Giesbrecht

March 2010 Publication

Many of us spend so much effort comparing ourselves to others, or trying to live up to their expectations.

A rooster spied a large ostrich egg in the yard next door.  He quickly flew over the fence to examine it.  He looked it over, kicked it, and stealthily rolled it into his own yard.  Then calling all the hens together, he said,  "Now I'm not complaining girls, I'm simply showing you what they are doing in other places.


Once a wise teacher was speaking to a group of eager young students.  He gave them the assignment to go out and find a small, unnoticed flower somewhere.  He asked them to study the flower for a long time.  "Get a magnifying glass and study the delicate veins in the leaves, and notice the nuances and shades of color.  Turn the leaves slowly and observe their symmetry.  And remember that this flower might have gone unnoticed and unappreciated if you had not found and admired it."  After the class returned, the teacher observed,  "People are like that.  Each one is different, carefully crafted, uniquely endowed.  But you have to spend time with them to know this.  So many people go unnoticed and unappreciated because no one has ever taken time with them and admired their uniqueness."

Consider the words of the Psalmist.  "I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well."  Psalm 139:14.

Isn't it time we started living with the uniqueness that God created us for and not try to be someone else?

Pastor John Giesbrecht

February 2011 Publication

Consider the following true story on this Valentine's month.


"Many years ago, while watching a little TV on Sunday, I watched a Church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years.


He was 92 at the time and I wondered why the Church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age.  After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker, as the applause quieted down, he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gate to the podium...  Without a note or written paper of any kind, he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak...


"When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50 odd years of preaching... I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials.  The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heart break and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me... The only thing that would comfort was this verse...
"Jesus loves me this I know.  for the bible tells me so.   Little ones to him belong, we are weak but He is strong... Yes Jesus loves me... The Bible tells me so."


When he finished, the church was quiet.  You actually could hear his footsteps as he shuffled back to his chair.  I don't believe I will ever forget it.

Have you allowed Jesus' love to impact your life?

Pastor John Giesbrecht

February 2010 Publication

Here are a couple of stories that demonstrate human love.

Aleida Huissen, 78, of Rotterdam, Netherlands, has been smoking for 50 years. And for 50 years she has been trying to give up her harmful habit. But she has not been successful - - that is, until recently. She has now given up cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. The secret? Leo Jansen, 79, proposed marriage last year, but refused to through with the wedding until Aleida gave up smoking. Says Aleida now: "Will power never was enough to get me off the tobacco habit. Love did it."

***********

A mother found under her place one morning at breakfast a bill made out by her small son, Bradley, aged eight - Mothers owes Bradley: For running errands, 25 cents; for being good, 10 cents; for taking music lessons, 10 cents; for extras, 5 cents. Total: 45 cents.
Mother smiled but made no comment. At lunch Bradley found the bill under his plate with 45 cents and another piece of paper neatly folded like the first. opening it he read - Bradley owes mother: for nursing him through scarlet fever, nothing; for being good to him, nothing; for clothes, shoes and playthings, nothing; for his playroom, nothing; for his meals nothing. Total: nothing.

Then, consider these words describing God's unconditional love to us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life? John 3:16.

Oh how He wants a relationship with us, but He will force His love on no one. How can anyone reject His love?

Because of that great love,
Pastor John Giesbrecht

January 2011 Publication

It is very possible that during this past year life threw you some unexpected discomfort or adversity.  Were these circumstances intrusions, or set backs, or were they opportunities to learn valuable lessons from them?

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."  (Charles Swindoll)

Someone has said  "Remember, if everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane."

There once was an oyster whose story I tell,

Who found that sand had got under his shell;

Just one little grain, but gave him much pain,

For oysters have feelings although they're so plain.

Now, did he berate the working of fate,

Which had led him to such a deplorable state?

Did he curse out the government, call for an election?

No; as he lay on th shelf, he said to himself;

"If I cannot remove it, I'll try to improve it."

So the years rolled by as the years always do,

And he came to his ultimate destiny-stew.

And this small grain of sand which had bothered him so,

Was a beautiful pearl, all richly aglow.

Now this tale has a moral-for isn't it grand,

What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand;

What couldn't we do if we'd only begin

With all of the things that get under our skin.

"In order to realize the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the stress of the storm."

I encourage you to claim this verse from the Bible.  "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast"  Hebrews  6:19a.

Pastor John Giesbrecht

January 2010 Publication

The youngster brought home a report card heavy with poor grades. His mother asked, "What have you to say about this?" The boy replied, "One thing is for sure, you know I ain't cheating!"

Henry Ford said "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, only more intelligently."

An assistant of Thomas A. Edison once tried to console the inventor over the failure to achieve in a series of experiments that he had set out to find: "It's too bad," he said, "to do all that work without results," "Oh", said Mr. Edison, "we have lots of results. We know seven hundred things that won't work."

Someone has said, "Failure is the line of least persistence.

Henry Wheeler Shaw wrote "It ain't no disgrace for a man to fail, but to lay there and grunt, is."

Do you feel like you have been a failure to yourself or a loved one, or especially to God, this past year? Be encouraged from the words of the Apostle Paul from Philippians 3:13, 14. "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things that are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Charles Colson wrote "The real legacy of my life was my biggest failure - that I was an ex-convict. My greatest humiliation - being sent to prison - was the beginning of God's greatest use of my life; he chose the one experience in which I could not glory for His glory."

God is willing to put your past behind you to give you a new start. We need to press toward that goal.

Happy New Year!
Pastor John Giesbrecht

December 2009 Publication

The angel's message to Joseph, who was soon to be a step dad to the Virgin born Jesus, in Matthew  1:20, 21, "Do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

Roy Lessin observes:
"If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.  If our greatest need had been technology,  God would have sent us a scientist.  If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.  But since our greatest need was forgiveness. "God sent us a Saviour."

Billy Graham writes:
"Jesus came into the world to save all kinds of people; rich or poor, black or white, educated or illiterate, sophisticated or ordinary - or anyone in between.
Only two groups of people gathered at God's invitation to pay Him homage when He was born.  One was the shepherds - lowly, at the bottom of the social ladder, uneducated, unsophisticated.  The other was the wise men - intellectuals, from another race and country, wealthy, respected.  The two groups could hardly have been more different!
God brought both groups to Bethlehem - one by an angelic announcement, one by the appearance of a miraculous star.  And by bringing both, God was telling us that Jesus is the Saviour for everyone.  Every person stands in need of His forgiveness and new life - and every person can know it, if he or she only repents and makes that journey to the Christ of Christmas.
No matter who you are in the eyes of others, you need Christ.  And no matter what you have done, He loves you and stands ready to welcome you."

We would be delighted to have you join us for Christmas Eve service and Christmas day dinner.

Pastor John Giesbrecht

December 2008 Publication

Consider these words from the Bible; "The Word (God) became flesh and lived among us."  John  1:14.

I recently read about the legend of the touchstone.  It's a good Advent / Christmas parable for us.  According to the legend, if you found the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and held it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold.  You would recognize the touchstone by its warmth.  The other stones would feel cold, but the touchstone would turn warm in your hand.

Once a man sold everything he had, went to the Black Sea, and began picking up stones, hoping to find the touchstone.  After some days passed he realized he was picking up the sames stones again and again.  So he devised a plan:  Pick up a tone; it it's cold, throw it into the sea.  This he did for weeks and weeks.

One morning he picked up a stone.  It was cold, so he threw it into the sea.  He picked up another.   It too felt cold, so he threw it into the sea - and so on and so on.  Then he picked up yet another stone.  It turned warm in his hand but before he realized what he was doing, he threw it into the sea!  He had the touchstone in his hand, and he threw it away.  So dulled by the routine, he didn't recognize its specialness.  Absentmindedly, he tossed it aside.

This can happen to us at Christmas time.  If we are not careful, we miss the uniqueness, the power, the sacredness of the season; and before we even realize what we are doing, we throw it away, toss it aside.

Christmas has so much to give us, so much to teach us.  The purpose of Advent is to get us ready for the sacredness of Christmas so we can receive and celebrate the wonderful gifts Christmas has for us ... and, especially, the gift of Jesus Christ who is, indeed, "The Reason for the Season."

We hope you have the best Christmas ever, as you focus on the Christ of Christmas.

Pastor John Giesbrecht

November 2009 Publication

Zig Ziglar tells this interesting story about freedom.

Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist from a few years back, issued a challenge wherever he went.  He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free in short order.  Always he kept his promise, but one time something went wrong.  Houdini entered the jail in his street clothes; the heavy, metal doors clanged shut behind him.  He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible.  He set to work immediately, but something seemed to be unusual about the lock.  For thirty minutes he worked and got nowhere.  An hour passed, and still he had not opened the door.  By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock.  Finally, after laboring for two hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock.  But when he fell against the door, it swung open!  It had never been locked at all!  But in his mind it was locked, and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell.

Our country's door to freedom could have been locked had it not been for courageous men and women who were willing to give whatever it took, including their lives, to give us a free country to live in.  Let's make sure we don't soon forget the freedom we enjoy because of these dedicated heroes.  Thank you Veterans.

Also, remember what it cost Jesus Christ to give us spiritual freedom.  The song goes, in part, "I'm free from the fear of tomorrow, I'm free from the guilt of the past."  The cross of Jesus Christ gives those freedoms and so many more.  We would be delighted to discuss these with you.  From someone who enjoys several kinds of freedom.

Pastor John Giesbrecht

November 2008 Publication

Once again at this time of year, we take time to remember the horrors of war and heroes who fought in them, those who lived through them and those who paid the ultimate price for freedoms we enjoy.  Veterans, please accept our humble thanks.

Peace is not a word that springs to mind when we think about our history.  In World War I, (the war that was to end all wars), the total dead from all nations was ten million.  In World War II fifty five million people died.  Add the purges of Stalin and Mao Tse Tung, the slaughter in Vietnam, Cambodia, Rwanda; then Kosivo and East Timor, and currently the fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan for starters, and we recognize that peace is conspicuously lacking with nations and individuals.

Isn't it time to start giving consideration to Jesus Christ, the "Prince of Peace?"  He came to bring reconciliation between us and God and to each other as fellow human beings.  He Himself said  "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart.  I have overcome the world."  John  16:33.

Derrick Bingham shares the following information:
"I will always remember listening at a convention one evening to Elivs Presley's stepbrother speak."  He told how the world famous singer was approached by one of his entourage.
"This girl keeps ringing me", he said, "and says that it is high time I was living for Jesus.  What do you think, Elivs?"
"It is", replied Elvis, "high time we were all living for Jesus".  Three days later Elvis was dead.  He had lived the latter years of his life in a horrendously zany way showing deep restlessness.  He knew, though, where true peace and love could be found.  They could be found by faith in Jesus Christ.  Sadly he lived for other things which could not deliver on the things he needed the most."

Are you at peace with God, with others, with yourself?  Jesus graciously provides it.

Pastor John Giesbrecht