In 1958, Surrey, B.C. was largely rural and treed. There were scattered communities and a lot of small farms. People would travel to family cottages in Crescent Beach for summer vacation.
The population was beginning to grow in this post-war era, as families would settle “south of the Fraser.” Some entrepreneurial pastors and leaders saw the need for a church near Guildford (The mall area was then a dense forest).
Two smaller church works, Hjorth Road Mission and Green Timbers Bible Church joined to form one church, Johnston Heights Church, and began services in their newly constructed building on October 19, 1958.
Since these rather humble beginnings, the church has grown and thrived. Generations of believers have come to faith, been discipled and served, both in and from this church.
I am thankful to have our LPD Office in this church, as it is in the heart the mainland region of our Lower Pacific District and it is good to have a district “home” in this local church.
Since 1958, the community has grown and changed, and so has Johnston Heights Church. According to the National Household Survey (2011) the top three most reported religious affiliations in Surrey are Christianity (38.2%), Irreligion (28.6%) and Sikhism (22.6%). The Gospel remains just as Good News as ever, and I am thankful for the witness of the people of Johnston Heights Church.
Please pray for this church family and their team of pastors, staff and volunteers. Johnston Heights is being used of the Lord, both locally and globally, and we are thankful for them! They, like all of us, seek to reach their community and care for their congregation through COVID.
Please pray for their Christmas Eve Drive-In Service.
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Ok, the word is out for my holiday presents
– all I want for Christmas is my kids and grandkids!!
So a friend posted on Facebook on Thursday of this week…
I identify with this post, and I am sure that many of you do as well. It has been a long year, with a lot of fear, disappointments, postponements, uncertainty and loneliness both personally and corporately as churches. As we look to Christmas this year, and the next work from Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Monday, December 7th, are we feeling contentious, or are we content and at peace?
So …, what difference does our faith make?
Our small group at Northside Community Church has been enjoying the Book of Philippians, using the resource, “Discipleship Explored.” This week, the discussion guide posed this question, “If you are being honest, how would you finish this sentence, “I can be content, as long as ___________? “
The Apostle Paul, writes the letter of Philippians from a prison cell in Rome and is chained to a Roman guard. Of all the churches he has planted and ministered to, only Philippi has been faithful in supporting him financially.
Paul could have had a lot to “grouse about” and perhaps be excused for some self-pity. After all, he had given so much of himself to the churches, had suffered imprisonment and beatings for “the ministry,” and now he was locked up and largely abandoned in prison. Hadn’t the churches and even the Lord taken notice of his plight?
Yet, Paul writes,
“…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Phil. 4:11b-13).
These words were of great encouragement to Oliver Cromwell. He experienced the death of two children, a son and a daughter.
It is said that just few days after the death of his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Claypole, Cromwell called for his Bible, and requested an honourable and godly person to be there (with others) present, to read to him the verses above. After the reading, Cromwell spoke, saying, ” This Scripture did once save my life, when my eldest son died, which went as a dagger to my heart, indeed it did.” And then, repeating the words of the text himself, declared his then thoughts to this purpose, reading the tenth and eleventh verses of Paul’s contentation, and submission to the will of God in all conditions (said he): “‘Tis true, Paul, you have learned this, and attained to this measure of grace: but what shall I do? Ah, poor creature, it is a hard lesson for me to take out! I find it so!” But reading on to the thirteenth verse, where Paul saith, “I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me”—then faith began to work, and his heart to find support and comfort, and he said thus to himself: “He that was Paul’s Christ is my Christ too,” and so drew water out of the wells of salvation, Christ in the covenant of grace.’ (based upon Expositors Dictionary of Texts).
Paul earlier in the letter writes, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” (Phil 1:21-24). With such singular focus, Paul cannot be disappointed by life’s circumstances. If her were to fill out the question posed for our small group study,“I can be content, as long as…, “ I believe he might just say, “as long as I remain in Christ.”
As a human, I hope for many things, many over which I have no control. My prayer is that I learn more and more to simply be content in what I have in Christ – all else is bonus :).
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“I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been born in God’s thought, and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking. This is a prayer of contentment”
― C.S. Lewis
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Here is a great “pick-me-up” from One Voice Children’s Choir:
The First is “I Can Only Imagine,” written by Mercy Me. This focuses on what it will be like to meet Christ one day. This was a song chosen as a part of my brother Bruce’s memorial in 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acwsBIl15zM
The second is the song “Memories,”
Sung by One Voice Children’s Choir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB6yjGVuzVo
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