Category: Sunday Recap

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Church Clint Sunday Recap

Sunday Recap: Adoptions, Hogs, Hopes, and Mountains

credit: Kym Unsplash.com

We just finished our conference on Puritan spirituality with Dr. Stephen Yuille on Saturday. As is often the case, we have a Q&A in Sunday School with the visiting speaker. So sticking with the routine, we started our Sunday in the same way.

I asked Stephen, a Canadian who is pastoring in Texas, about life and ministry there. He shared the amazing story of adopting his youngest daughter from China (the story is in his book A Hope Deferred: Adoption and the Fatherhood of God).

The funny moment in the interview was when I asked Stephen about the practice of hunting feral hogs in Texas.

We also discussed the challenges faced by churches in Texas, as well as the prospects for theological education in Canada. Stephen is taking a new position at Heritage Theological Seminary as VP of Academics.

In the main service, Stephen preached from Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”. The message was blessed by the Spirit, as we engaged in what Stephen had earlier described as the Puritan practice of “public meditation” on God’s Word.

Afterwards, Christel, myself and our sons took Stephen to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. We were worried that the cold clouds would obscure our view. But as we drove west and the mountains rose up, the fog parted and the brilliant sun shone through the blue sky on the crisp white towers.

We toured Canmore but it was cold in the sunshine (- 20 degrees Celsius). Surely it was a reminder for Stephen about Canadian winters, but we knew he would return for his warm Texas reprieve.

How humbling to see the towering Rockies and know that God is our mighty fortress who will last when they are gone. And so he and he alone is our true hope.

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Clint Sunday Recap

Sunday Recap: Snow, TULIP, Texas, Empty Nest, Tom Clancy

Unsplash: Paul Gilmore

Our Lord’s Day was filled with blessing even as we were thankful to God for protecting us on the way to church. The snowpack on the highways made for slippery driving. Some people were late getting to church because of large drifts of snow blocking driveways and side roads. One elder said that he was nearly t-boned by another vehicle on the way to church. Praise God everyone arrived safely.

I preached the final of my series on the doctrines of grace, looking at the P in TULIP, ‘the perseverance of the saints’. My hope is that many people we encouraged to press on, suffer ‘outside the camp’ with Christ, bearing his reproach as ‘martyr/witnesses’.

It was encouraging to have a visitor from Texas with us. He attends a church in Laredo on the Mexico border. He was vacationing in the Rockies and looked up our church. How encouraging to know that this young man had such good teaching in Texas which fit with what he was taught in Calgary.

After the service, we dispatched our three sons with friends who took them home with them. Later reports indicated there was lots of D-Day planning and assaulting the ramparts. But such is the case with a large group of young boys.

Later on, as empty nesters, Christel and I rested with food and drink by the fire and watched an old Tom Clancy movie. We enjoyed seeing how archaic the computers seemed from way back in 1990.

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Sunday Recap

Sunday Recap: – 40 Below, Church On Time, Golden Chain, Budgets

Credit: Mark Basarab

This Sunday was a bit strange and difficult and special.

Of our two vehicles neither would start in the -40 below weather. I worked on them intermittently from 7:30 to 9:45 am to no avail.

Christel was sick along with one son and a pastor was down for the count and unable to lead the congregational meeting. It was shaping up for a difficult day.

So I walked to 2 blocks in the sub-forty-degree weather and borrowed a van from one of my elders. His wife mentioned God’s providence in it all and I had to wonder.

With the help of this family, I was able to drive to church and walk in as people were finishing the last of the opening hymns.

I preached from Romans 8 and the golden chain of the “ordo salutis” focussing on the effectual calling of God.

I had to confess my struggle with trusting in God and that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

But God was gracious and gave me liberty and it seemed, some sweet unction as I praying for God to compellingly convert many sinners to himself.

After the service, we had a congregational meeting with a church budget discussion. I outlined the prospects for our new church plant and the need for more staff. We ate food and read aloud our covenant with one another.

I got the friends’ minivan home and was gratified to get one of two cars going.

It was a good Sunday even with all the hurdles.

We spent 5 hours together as a church family.

And -40 didn’t stop us.

A deacon at Calvary Grace, Jared Harfield, tweeted out:

Why do Christians battle icy roads and -40°C wind chill to get to church on Sundays like this?

Because God’s word is like fire (Jer. 23:29).

When the Bible is read, prayed, sung, and preached – cold hearts are set aflame with love for Jesus and each other.

And that is the latest Sunday Recap.

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Clint Sunday Recap

The Potter’s Freedom, Slurpees, Bach and the Hearth: A Sunday Recap

This Lord’s Day we braved icy roads to get to church where we were fed well in Sunday School and sang with the saints looking to Behold Our God and asking to Show Us Christ. I gave my sermon on the Potter’s Freedom in Jeremiah 18 and Romans 9 and we ended the service with an appeal to believe in Jesus Christ with the free offer of the gospel as a fitting way to speak about unconditional election.

After a meeting about the proposed church plant and many conversations about God’s love and the ebbs and flows of life, we left the church not as the last souls, but the near to last and went straight to 7-11. The boys all had a Slurpee with their lunch and considered it the fitting drink for celebration.

The afternoon was a mix of church friends and naps and updates from the senior’s home outreach. I was informed of an elderly woman who resisted the church’s ministry at the home, but this Sunday she was listening. Can I believe that a sinner can believe in the 11th hour?

We ate our supper and reviewed the catechism question. A funny acronym helped us all to remember the answer as we went around the table for our batch of talk. As we washed up we got a text about a youth leader who was getting surgery. The oldest prayed for him that he would not be complaining ‘Why Me Lord?’ but would instead see God’s hand in it all.

After we washed and cleaned up and they finished Monday’s due homework, we all switched to the living room and got a fire going in the hearth. We read our various books hearing giggles from the youngest, jokes from the middlest, Tolkienisms from the oldest, while Christel read Anne Bradstreet and I read Sinclair Ferguson. We played some Bach on the Mac and settled our minds and hearts near the end of the day.

Too late we prayed with the boys and sent them to bed while we watched the fire mellow down to embers at the end of a blessed day of God’s grace.

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Clint Sunday Recap

Sunday Recap: Chinook, Uganda, the kingship of Jesus, church planting, country music, catechism and more.

The Lord’s Day January 13, 2019 came with a beautiful Chinook over the Rockies and a rising dawn as the days get longer.

In Sunday School we looked at the person of the Holy Spirit, addressing the all too common misconception of the Spirit as a force, not a person.

In the main service I ended up leading the service, though I was not prepared. The miscommunication was my own fault. But as happens on a Sunday morning in most churches a person must adapt to change. It’s good to trust the Lord for change lest we think the power is in our clever planning.

I had meditated on 1 Cor 2:2 in my devotions so I used that as the call to worship. “ I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

We sang and I used Romans 3 as a meditation for our confession of sin and assurance of pardon.

We sang again and I introduced the preacher, a missionary in Uganda whose passion was contagious. At the end of the meeting I spoke with him and was challenged by his efforts to lay foundations for the church in a church-less region of Uganda.

He preached on the great commission in Matthew 28 and we were summoned to bow before Christ as king. Such a truth pilots all other things.

After the service I met a new family, originally from Pakistan who were Christian believers. They wanted to start coming to our church in a search for sound bible teaching.

Then there was a meeting with a core group our church is sending to plant in a nearby town. There was caution mixed with wise enthusiasm in the group. It was just the right mix.

After passing by another community group having a potluck in the basement I found my family waiting in the vehicle.

Christel was not feeling well and the service went extra long so we happily rested in recovery on this day of rest. I was tired, even though I didn’t preach, but fatigue reminds me that God’s sabbaths are made for man

Although we don’t have two separate services we spend nearly 4hours together corporately which permits us the time to know one another and show our love for each other.

Being challenged by a message about the kingship of Christ, I finished Sunday with a desire to follow him as his servant and summon all nations to follow him as they ought to do. This is good and right. Bless God for such good news!

We ate our evening meal and had some entertainment from our son’s who each played us their best song on guitar. Selections from Corb Lund, Marty Robbins and the Beatles.

At bedtime we reviewed at the New City catechism question. A few laughs and giggles but we got the basics down.

All of us retired to sleep ready on the first day of the week for what may come—Happy expectancy under the sovereign grace of God.