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This Week!

Basketball!
Tuesday, August 15th @ 1pm-3pm

Wear your gym clothes and join us for some good ole basketball games in the gym!
Please register as spots are limited.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE ONLINE SUMMER ACTIVITY RELEASE FORM

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No Youth Group!
Wednesday, August 16th @ 7pm-9pm

This is an High School Ministry night for students completed grade 8 to 12.
See you next Tuesday, August 22nd.

Next Week!

Skate Park!
Tuesday, August 22th @ 1pm-3pm

We are going to a local skate park! Meet at the church first. Bring your rollerblades, scooter, skateboard and helmet! You can also use our skateboards, we’ll teach you!
Please register because space is limited. Summer Activity Release form is required for this event.
Registration opens on Monday, August 21.

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Winnipeg Rocks pt. 2!
Wednesday, August 23rd @ 6:45pm-9pm

We had so much fun doing random acts of kindness in June, that we’re doing it again! This time we’ll be handing out freezies at Assiniboine park. Meet at church first!

Follow us on Instagram for event and weather updates all Summer long! @threshold_jr Join us throughout the week on Discord!

Here’s what you need to know:
First, create a Discord user by downloading the application here.
Second, sign on to our Threshold Jr Discord server by clicking here.
You’ll be up to speed throughout the week!

 

The post Threshold Jr – August 14th appeared first on Church of The Rock.

The Book of Proverbs is a collection of pithy sayings that captures the ancient Jewish understanding of wisdom. Created or collected by King Solomon, these sayings have endured for at least 3000 years, and have a prominent place in the Old Testament.

Does a sophisticated age like ours need wisdom from the ancient past? Hasn’t our knowledge and intelligence superseded antiquity’s biblical wisdom? 

By biblical wisdom we mean the ability to see life holistically or panoramically, as God sees it. Now, as then, the tendency especially of the young can be to break life into “now” moments — and to treat each such moment as the whole of reality. We all may remember that in our youth it was easy to act on “now” without considering “later” consequences.

Just seven verses into his whole collection, Solomon gives us wisdom’s key: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7).

To “fear” the Lord does not mean to stand in dread of him. It means to respect and revere him because he is righteous, all-knowing, and worthy of trust. Our God is the Ultimate One we hold in such regard. If there is actual fear, it is about displeasing him.

Wisdom begins here, because The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Not of things like mathematics or physics. It is a right ordering of what we experience to best understand life – its choices, manners, priorities, pitfalls and outcomes. Such knowledge is wisdom.

This call to fear (respect, revere) the Lord is repeated several times in the Proverbs (2:5; 9:10; 14:26 and 27). This idea is found as well in Job, the story of a man in dire distress. (Job 28:28) King David sings about it (Psalm 34:11). The call to “fear the Lord” undergirds the Old Testament.

The ancients were more pointed and direct than we tend to be.  Solomon says forthrightly that those who despise his collected offering of wisdom are “fools.” That is, they are morally deficient. The use of such strong language is not meant to insult; it is meant to wake up anyone who is unserious and trifling with life, and to unmask folly.

The call to wisdom and the fear of the Lord is carried into the New Testament. For example, Luke gives us little information about Jesus for the 18 years from the time of his appearing in the Temple at 12 until the beginning of his public ministry at age 30. That relative silence makes wisdom all the more important when he notes twice that during those years of development, Jesus was “filled with wisdom” (Luke 2:40) and he “grew in wisdom” (Luke 2:52).

And in The Acts of the Apostles, Luke described the young church as increasing in numbers and “living in the fear of the Lord” (Acts 9:31). At the same time, the church was joyful; the living Christ was real; believers 

 him! They were faith-filled and they bravely witnessed to that living faith in a treacherous world. But the young church at its peak was humble and reverential toward the Lord, bowing low figuratively, and often literally, to seek his divine blessing.

There is a sophistication to our age which no one can deny. And of course it is important to be smart. But if it is a question of putting “smart” in a worldly sense over against “wise” in a godly way, believers will make wisdom the primary goal every time.

In all our seeking we first bow in reverence to the Lord and seek heaven’s wisdom passionately and with our whole hearts. And with this we are promised a great reward of knowledge.

First published: March 17, 2014

Revised: August 14, 2023

My new memoir, FROM KITCHEN CHAIR TO PULPIT: A Memoir of Family, Faith, and Ministry, has just been published. I hope you will click on one of the links that follow to be taken to the page on these sites that enable you to view and potentially purchase the paperback or ebook. My book shows just how extraordinary the pastoral life can be, describing how I prepared for ministry and ministered to three congregations and then, as a bishop, to pastors as a bishop, with the help of my wife, Kathleen, and the support of our children as they grew up from children to adults.

Purchase in Canada

Purchase in the US

Collide Discussion Questions

Decision

Check out our ongoing resources for each age group:

• • • • • Preschool
        • Elementary 
        • Collide 
        • Parents

        And don’t forget to follow Kidz Rock on Facebook and Instagram!

           

The post Collide – August 13th appeared first on Church of The Rock.

ACTIVITY PAGES TO DOWNLOAD

Worship Video

 

Check out our ongoing resources for each age group:

• Preschool
• Elementary 
• Collide 
• Parents

And don’t forget to follow Kidz Rock on Facebook and Instagram!

   

The post Preschool – Aug 13th appeared first on Church of The Rock.

ACTIVITIES FOR THIS LESSON

Worship Video

Check out our ongoing resources for each age group:

• Preschool
• Elementary 
• Collide 
• Parents

And don’t forget to follow Kidz Rock on Facebook and Instagram!

   

The post Elementary – August 13th appeared first on Church of The Rock.

This Week!

No Youth Group!
Monday Aug 7th-9th

No youth group this week due to church camp.
See you on Tues, August 15th.

Next Week!

Basketball!
Tuesday, August 15th @ 1pm-3pm

Wear your gym clothes and join us for some good ole basketball games in the gym!
Please register as spots are limited.
Registration opens on Monday, August 14th.

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE ONLINE SUMMER ACTIVITY RELEASE FORM

&

No Youth Group!
Wednesday, August 16th @ 7pm-9pm

This is an High School Ministry night for students completed grade 8 to 12.
See you next week on Tuesday, August 22 for our Skate Park event!

Follow us on Instagram for event and weather updates all Summer long! @threshold_jr Join us throughout the week on Discord!

Here’s what you need to know:
First, create a Discord user by downloading the application here.
Second, sign on to our Threshold Jr Discord server by clicking here.
You’ll be up to speed throughout the week!

 

The post Threshold Jr – August 7th appeared first on Church of The Rock.

This Week!

No Youth Group!
Mon-Wed: August 7th to 9th

No youth group this week due to Church Camp.
See you on Mon, August 14th (Bible Study, 7pm-9pm).

Next Week!

Summer Bible Study!
Monday’s @ 7:00pm-9:30pm

Join us in the Youth Room every Monday for a chill night of diving into scripture and enjoying FREE snacks! Students completed grade 8 -12 are welcome to attend!

&

Basketball!
Tuesday, August 15th @ 1:00pm-3:00pm

Wear your gym clothes and join us for some ole basketball games in the gym!
Please register as spots are limited. Registration opens on Monday, August 14th.

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE ONLINE ACTIVITY RELEASE FORM

&

Sports Night!
Wednesday, August 16th @ 7:00pm-9:00pm

This is a High School Ministry night for students completed grade 8 to 12. Join us for a mini sports tournament and faith night! It’s going to be an awesome night filled with games, prizes, worship, a short message and free time!

Follow us on Instagram for event and weather updates all Summer long! @ churchoftherockhsm Join us throughout the week on Discord! Here’s what you need to know:
First, please download Discord for your device! You can do this by downloading the application here.
Second, add yourself to our High School Ministry Discord Server by clicking THIS LINK.

We will keep you informed on what’s coming up AND spontaneous hangouts!

The post High School Ministry – August 7th appeared first on Church of The Rock.

When we become Christians, the Scriptures say, we pass from death to life (Ephesians 2:4). But this isn’t about physical life. We already have that.

No, the new life we are promised begins with peace with God during our time on earth, and continues into eternal life, after physical death. If we believe in our Savior Jesus Christ and live under his Lordship, we will not face punishment for our sins (eternal death and darkness) at the Final Judgment because he paid that penalty for those of us who believe.

For every human life, Jesus sacrificed his life on Calvary (2 Corinthians 5:21). He says of those who believe in him, “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)

Before we pass from death to life, God is not in our thoughts except as some remote being to be feared or ignored. Then we are made aware of our sin and offered spiritual birth and life. Search “Ephesians 2” to read the marvelous explanation.

After we become spiritually alive, God’s Spirit gives us a whole new perspective on the present and the future.

Jesus called passing from death to life as radical as being born again (John 3:3). It is like starting all over. And the very God we have resisted, tried to ignore, or even hated is now seen to us as a loving Heavenly Father (Luke 11:11-13).

Jesus told a man who came to him under cover of darkness that passing from spiritual death to spiritual life is as mysterious as the wind (John 3:9). When the wind blows we can hear it and feel it brush our faces. Our senses tell us it is real. But we can’t see where it came from or where it is going. Just so, when we put our trust in God and he visits upon us a new birth the experience is real but also mysterious to our full understanding.

Elmer illustrates well going from death to life. I revere his memory. He had heard the gospel outlined above on a radio broadcast many years earlier. It was a radically new message to him. And thanks be to God: right then, he accepted the message, prayed the “I’m sorry” prayer of a penitent and expressed a simple faith in Jesus as his Savior.

It was all so new and strange to him that he didn’t go near a church building for a year. He didn’t initially see the connection between faith and the church. Then a caring pastor crossed his path and led him into the church for worship, fellowship and service to others.

Across the years since that first encounter with the Lord, Elmer explained to me, he had tried to walk in obedience to Jesus, living Lord. The result: He became a lover of God, and an outstanding servant in the life of the church, his workplace, and family. The evidence that he had passed from death to life was warmly apparent as long as I knew him. And he is now with the Lord and has heard those longed-for words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

The Apostle John summarizes spiritual re-birth so simply: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11,12).

Oh the joy of passing from death to life. All from, and for Jesus! It prompts the question: Am I dead or alive?

First published FEBRUARY 17, 2014 / DONALD N. BASTIAN

Edited August 7, 2023

My new memoir, FROM KITCHEN CHAIR TO PULPIT: A Memoir of Family, Faith, and Ministry, has just been published. I hope you will click on one of the links that follow to be taken to the page on these sites that enable you to view and potentially purchase the paperback or ebook. My book shows just how extraordinary the pastoral life can be, describing how I prepared for ministry and ministered to three congregations and then, as a bishop, to pastors as a bishop, with the help of my wife, Kathleen, and the support of our children as they grew up from children to adults.

Purchase in Canada

Purchase in the US