New Here
WORSHIP:
Timothy Christian School
750 Essa Road
Barrie, ON
9 a.m. & 11:15 a.m.

OFFICE:
258 Bayfield Street
Barrie, ON
L4M 3B7

CONTACT:
P: 705-739-8613
F: 705-739-9348
info@harvestbarrie.ca
Search this Site
SearchSearch

For Those With Ears - Entries from January 2011

Home - Connections - Blogs - For Those With Ears - Entries from January 2011
MonMondayJanJanuary31st2011 New Worship Director: Jordan Donald
Posted Monday, January 31 2011 @ 10 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged No tags 2 comments Add comment
On Sunday I was able to make a long-awaited announcement about our new worship director.  I am excited about Jordan Donald of Harvest Bible Chapel Elgin, Illinois joining our staff team in this important role. If you were in worship on January 23, you had the joy and privilege of being led by him and seeing both his heart and his God-given abilities.

Jordan is a student and part-time staff team member at Harvest Bible Chapel Elgin. For the past three years he has been leading and developing worship teams for the senior high and young adult ministries, as well as being a regular part of the weekend service worship team.

Jordan was born in Southern Ontario, but moved with his family to Chicago when he was just two years old and was part of the first Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows going back to 1989 when the church was less than a year old.  He has seen Harvest grow from one small church to more than sixty churches worldwide as well as six Chicago-area campuses launched from the original Harvest.

Just a few weeks ago, Jordan was engaged to a young lady he met while he was leading worship! Roxie Stanciu is also a student (biology) and member at Harvest Elgin. They had the opportunity to visit Barrie together in January and had their own call to come and join our church confirmed as a result. 

Jordan is graduating this spring from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago with a Bachelor of Theology. Sometime after graduation he and Roxie will be getting married. Following their wedding, they will be moving to Barrie…after a honeymoon, of course.  The plan is to have them here sometime around July 1.

Jordan’s responsibilities will include overseeing all aspects of the worship ministry at Harvest. He will lead and develop our Sunday worship teams, consult and assist with worship in children, youth, young adults and small groups (not taking direct leadership, but ensuring that worship is consistent and impactful top to bottom and that we have a strong pipeline of talented musicians developing at all times). He will also oversee the Tabernacle (set up and tear down), worship aesthetics, and tech teams.

We are grateful to see how God has worked through all this.  He has sustained and blessed our ministry and led us to a great new team member.  Our staff and elders are so excited about him starting his ministry here. The waiting will be difficult!

But in the meantime, on behalf of the elders, I want to say that I am also grateful for faithful volunteers who make up all aspects of our worship ministry. From those who set up and put away the chairs and such each week, to the technical people who help us see and hear everything clearly, to those who help set the atmosphere in the room and those who lead, play and sing…we say, Thank you, Lord, for these servants of yours who serve so willingly and joyfully. All of this work for Christ supports the desire we have as a church to lift high the name of Jesus Christ in worship.



Please add Jordan and Roxie to your prayer list as they prepare to join us here in Barrie.  Pray specifically for them as…
- They complete this semester in school: Jordan as he graduates and Roxie as she continues her undergrad degree;
- Roxie considers education options for next year here in Barrie/Toronto;
- They plan their wedding for the Spring/Summer;
- Roxie works through her immigration application and submits it to the government;
- They complete their ministries at Harvest Elgin in the next few months and say good-bye to the great people with whom they’ve shared the joy of serving.

God is good.  He is providing in extraordinary ways for his church in Barrie. This is just the latest evidence of this love and care for us.
FriFridayJanJanuary28th2011 Am I doing something wrong?
Posted Friday, January 28 2011 @ 8 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged From the Cave 5 comments Add comment


I have some questions.  They have to do with righteous living, obedience to God, faithfulness to his will…and how even though you’re doing all the right things, life can still be quite hard.

There are too many people (believers among them) who have fallen into the trap of believing that prosperity and blessing equal God’s favour.  In other words, when it is all going your way, God obviously likes what you’re up to and has rewarded you with good things.  And when life is hard, God obviously doesn’t like what you’re up to and is punishing you with bad things. That thinking is pretty common.  Often it is unstated and more often than not vehemently denied, yet practically speaking, it seems we believe it to be true. Our culture is no help here. Life is measured by how much you have. Your bank account, your educational achievement, your address, and the number of Facebook friends you have become the measure of whether or not you’ve got it going on.  We might eschew the prosperity gospel from the pulpit, but we embrace it in real life simply by entertaining the thought that hardship in a person’s life must mean God’s favour is absent.

And we really struggle with the notion that the hardship may in fact be God’s favour in a person’s life. Weird to say, but it is the first thing I’ve written here that can be found in the Bible. 

Sunday’s message in Ezra 4 will help us answer the question, “If I’m doing exactly what God told me to do, how is it that things can still go so wrong?” It is a bit of a depressing little chapter in our series, “Not Going Back: Worship Rises” since it offers no real answers. It only recounts for us the frustration the Jews were experiencing in having their vision to re-establish worship stopped in its tracks by the lies, threats and political maneuvering of some adversaries.  And it is obvious from the narrative that God did nothing to stop them from stopping the good things that were happening.

But though the purposes of the Jews were frustrated, God’s purposes were not.  In the midst of the failure, “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me” (Psalm 57:2 ESV). And what are his purposes for me? Answer: to set me apart from the world, to have me know his power, to have me man-up and trust him, and to have me know that his ways are far greater than my ways.

And if those are the purposes, they can be accomplished whether I’m experiencing good times or bad. So, in fact, life may be really hard right now for you, and yet you may be doing everything right.  God is simply doing what he needs to do to accomplish his purposes.

I’m looking forward to studying this passage with you.

See you Sunday.

Todd
ThuThursdayJanJanuary27th2011 Prepping for Worship
Posted Thursday, January 27 2011 @ 6 AM byAmy Fotherby Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
If I’m being honest I know that there are some Sunday mornings when I show up for church and as I make my way into the worship center my heart is far from being ready to worship my God. I don’t like those mornings and often get more frustrated as I get in, get settled and realize how distracted/not ready I am – it’s just not a good scene.

A recent small group question was: “How can I best prepare for worshiping as the body?” It was the question that struck me the most that week.  I’ve spent some time praying and thinking about this, and have tried to set up some practical checkpoints for myself throughout the week.

Here’s a peek into my brain (beware!) at what I’ve come up with:

1.     Review – I need to take some time Sunday afternoon or Monday to review my notes from Sunday morning, look up any passages that were mentioned and then look over the small group curriculum (it’s available on the website – who knew!?!).
2.     I need to get to my small group and spend time with other believers in fellowship, worship, prayer, discussion and accountability.
3.     I need to ensure that I’m making it a priority to spend daily time in the Word and talking with God. I need to confess my sins daily to the Lord, keep really short accounts and recognize my dependence on him.
4.    I can check out the list of songs we’ll be singing on the upcoming Sunday…maybe put them on a playlist.
5.     I should read the Friday blog that talks about what the message will be on Sunday and read the scripture that we’ll be studying.
6.    I should pray through Weekend Warriors throughout the weekend. I think it would be a great idea to use my drive time on Sunday morning to just quiet my heart and pray for the different ministries that make up Sunday mornings at Harvest Bible Chapel.
7.     I need to make getting into service on time a real priority. There are always people I could chat with or another task I could do quickly…but very rarely is this more important than getting myself (and that other person I’m talking to!) into service ready to worship the Creator of the universe.
8.    Finally, I need to not allow myself to be distracted. I just need to focus on the songs we’re singing, the prayers we pray, the Scriptures being read and the message being delivered.

God calls for and deserves a heart that is fully engaged and prepared to worship him with everything in me.

1 Chronicles 16.29
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness…
Let’s get our hearts ready to worship our Lord in the splendor of holiness this weekend.
WedWednesdayJanJanuary26th2011 Missing Piece
Posted Wednesday, January 26 2011 @ 6 AM byAmy Fotherby Tagged No tags 1 comments Add comment
I don’t really like puzzles…they take too long. However, I know some people really enjoy doing puzzles and secretly I admire those people – doing a puzzle takes commitment! I was recently visiting a friend who had been working on a 550 piece ‘Where’s Waldo’ puzzle – she got all the way to end and realized she was missing just one little piece…I saw the puzzle – it wasn’t quite as exciting to look at with that one missing piece that showed the table underneath.

That little missing piece got me thinking about some people that I love dearly who I think are missing just one piece of the puzzle. These are good, moral people…they love and serve others, they’re generous with their time and money, some even come to church, they sing the worship songs and take sermon notes…most of these people even believe in God. But I have no reason to believe that these people in my life have had that initial moment of brokenness where they’ve realized their sin and recognized their need for a Saviour.

Isaiah 43:11 says “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.”

It wouldn’t be earth-shattering change for these people to turn their lives over to Christ and live full out for him but for some reason there just hasn’t been the connect from their heads to their hearts when they realize that they need to make an intentional decision to see their sin, recognize their need for a Saviour, confess their sins to Christ and commit to a personal relationship with him – there HAS to be that moment in a person’s life where they consciously decide to choose Christ – the missing piece.

If we’re being honest I think we all have nights when we crawl into bed and as we think back on our day we realize that there were moments (sometimes even hours) when we were far from dependent on Christ and relying a whole lot more on ourselves…I don’t know about you but I don’t find that that ever works out too well for me.  I KNOW my need for a Saviour but I fall into forgetting that as I get caught up in thinking that I’ve got things under control…

My moment happened at the end of January in 2000 in Waterloo sitting at my desk doing homework. I have no idea what triggered it other than the Holy Spirit but I was so struck with how far I had walked away from Christ and how desperately I needed him in my life that I was brought to my knees – broken over my sin and incredibly thankful for God’s grace in my life. Yet even though I know that was my moment I daily need to surrender control of my life to Christ lest I let too many minutes, hours, days, weeks or even years pass me by as I take that control and dependency back…I know I’m not above that…no one is.

Some things we can purpose to do to ensure we’re not missing a piece of the puzzle:
1.  Commit to daily time in the Word.
2.  Commit to daily times of prayer and acknowledge your dependence on Christ and need for a Saviour.
3.  Evaluate your days – in what areas are you still depending on yourself?
4. Make a plan – when you recognize areas of your life that you’re still holding onto, make a plan to remind you to live in dependence on Christ…get some accountability in place.
5.  Live it out.

Working on these five things, among others, will go far toward keeping us in a place of dependency on Christ - the LORD, our Saviour.
TueTuesdayJanJanuary25th2011 Prayer
Posted Tuesday, January 25 2011 @ 6 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged No tags 3 comments Add comment
If you don’t pray…

…nothing else matters. All the activities, ministries, lessons, sermons, all the serving and leading…all of it is a waste without the power of God’s Holy Spirit in it and on it.

So, we need to be a praying church. That’s where the power in this ministry is found. We seek God for his power and presence in what we seek to do for him.

There are a bunch of ways to be involved in regular prayer here at Harvest.

On Sunday, January 30 at 6:30 p.m. we will gather for our quarterly concert of prayer.  We spend a little time worshipping in song and then break up into smaller groups to pray. Come together as a small group or come on your own for this great time of corporate prayer.



Every week our Sunday morning prayer group gathers in the Higher Ground hall to pray for the worship services. Drop in anytime from 8 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. to intercede for those who will be part of morning worship.

We could also use some new recruits on two prayer teams:
  • The Friendship Register Prayer Team intercedes for those who submit prayer requests on the Friendship Registers on Sunday mornings. Each team member will receive a certain number of requests each week.
  • The Weekend Warriors are those who receive a special email on Fridays with an outline of the teaching, worship and children’s ministry that are planned for the coming Sunday.
If you’re interested in joining those who are already part of these teams, let us know by sending an email to .

We believe firmly in the power of prayer. To live that out, the Apostle Paul said that we are to be, “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18 ESV)
MonMondayJanJanuary24th2011 The Monday blog about Sunday
Posted Monday, January 24 2011 @ 8 AM byEutychus Tagged Monday 0 comments Add comment
Sunday morning saw plowed roads and bright sunshine as we gathered for worship.

Leading us in worship was Jordan Donald from Harvest Bible Chapel, Chicago.  The full list of worship songs is available online but be sure to check out this new song that Jordan introduced to us. 

Your Love Never Fails

The wind is strong and the water’s deep
But I’m not alone here in the open seas
‘Cause your love never fails
The chasm was far too wide
I never thought I’d reach the other side
Your love never fails
You stay the same through the ages
Your love never changes
There may be pain in the night
But joy comes in the morning
And when the oceans rage
I don’t have to be afraid
Because I know that you love
Your love never fails



Pastor Todd took us into Ezra chapter three, “Finding God in relationship not religion.”  You can find both the audio of the message and the sermon notes in one place on our website.

One thing Todd reminded us of was that God builds nations and churches on families.  We need God-centred families that make worship a priority.  It is exciting to me that our men’s groups are going to be going after that very thing in their new study.  We are looking at the book, “Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart” by Stu Weber (available from our bookstore).  He says, “What kind of man builds a civilization, a small civilization, that outlasts him?  A four pillared man: …  A man who will bear the weight, stand against the elements, and hold one small civilization intact in a world that would like nothing better than to tear it down.”  God is calling us to some things greater than ourselves.  It will be great to discover them together!

We definitely need God’s strength, power and direction to accomplish what he is calling us to so let's gather Sunday night to seek him.  We will be praying together at Timothy at 6:30. Join us in crying out to God for our church.
FriFridayJanJanuary21st2011 Relationship, not religion
Posted Friday, January 21 2011 @ 6 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
I read a compelling tweet this week by a pastor in California, which said, “Religion does not provide an opportunity to actually know God, and is therefore cruel, powerless, and boring” (Bill Johnson).

Knowing God—being in a relationship with him—is what every human being, whether they’re aware of it or not, is longing for and searching after.  What most do to achieve that relationship is to establish some sort of religious observance. The options are literally limitless when you consider all the established world religions and faith systems in addition to the designer faiths people are encouraged to create for themselves.

And so, they go to places of worship. Perform rituals and sacraments. They make donations, give of their time and volunteer their talents. They meditate, read, study and memorize holy books and writings, they chant, sing, recite and sit in silence. They dance, sway, kneel, walk. They make pilgrimages, go on missions, proselytize and teach others about their particular way of getting to “God” or whatever it is they’ve chosen to worship.

They do all this, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “That they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:27a ESV). But it is a vain hope when religion is the means of seeking. 

From the beginning, God related to his creation on a personal level. Adam and God walked together in the garden and conversed as one person talks to another. 

Throughout Old Testament history, prior to the coming of Christ, God was relating to his people as Father. He gathered them as a family. He loved them, watched over them and provided for them, he listened to them and gave them good gifts.  It was never because of what they did (religion) but because of his faithful love for them (relationship).  The incarnation of Jesus Christ as a human being was all about God relating to us…literally becoming like us…in order to save us.  It was the ultimate expression of his love.

That we have taken his love and the offer of a relationship and encumbered it with religion is our own undoing. By creating a set of rules and practices by which we gain God’s attention, we actually miss out entirely. Religion is our ineffectual way of getting to God…dependent on what we do. Relationship is his way of getting to us…dependent entirely on what he did.  Because, “He is good…his steadfast love endures forever” (Ezra 3:11). Sunday’s message is about worship, God’s love and the relationship he wants to have with us. It may look like they were setting up a religious system and certainly some people treated it as such, but God’s hearts was for something so much better than that.

We’ll be in Ezra 3. The series in the post-exilic books is called Not Going Back and part one in Ezra is called, Worship Rises, as we see Israel rebuilding the Temple and re-establishing the worship of their God.  If you’ve missed the first two messages in this teaching series, go online for the audios and sermon resources.

And I’m excited about the worship leader we have this week. Jordan Donald is on staff at Harvest Bible Chapel in Elgin, Illinois. Cheryl and I have been friends of the Donald family for about twenty-five years, so it is exciting to have him come this weekend and share his gifts with us. I know you’ll be blessed.

See you Sunday.

Todd
WedWednesdayJanJanuary19th2011 Survey Says…
Posted Wednesday, January 19 2011 @ 6 AM byAmy Fotherby Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
There aren’t many TV game shows that I really enjoy but I do enjoy Family Feud – watching it, playing it online, playing it on my phone…I find it entertaining.

Back in the summer I was playing quite a bit and the thought struck me – if people in my life were surveyed and asked how they would best describe me what would the top answers be? As this thought started to roll around in my head I came across 1 Peter 2:9:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

I have been called out of darkness and into the wonderful, saving light of Jesus Christ – does my life reflect that I am chosen and set apart?

I’d like to hope that people would choose positive words to describe me – nice, friendly, organized, hard-working, positive…those are all affirming words that I would like to think make up part of who I am. But as someone striving to live set apart for Christ there are a lot of other words that I should be striving for – godly, disciplined, bold for Christ, passionate for the cause of Christ, striving for holiness, sacrificial, a servant, humble, honest…if my life isn’t reflecting a deep love for Christ and his church, his saving grace in my life and ongoing work in my heart, a sense of urgency to share Christ with others…then ‘nice’ doesn’t really cut it, does it?

If people think I’m a good person – swell. But if they don’t see Christ in my life then something is seriously wrong.  I don’t want to be remembered as a person who could organize well…I want to be remembered as a woman who loved God with all she had.

There are days when I would NOT want people surveyed…and other days when it would seem less painful. I need to work at being more consistent…my life should reflect Christ and bring glory to him every moment of every day.

So…something to think about today – what words would people use to describe you? And what do you need to work on, change or grow in so that the words people would use would reflect Christ in your life?
FriFridayJanJanuary14th2011 Is worship a priority for me?
Posted Friday, January 14 2011 @ 10 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged No tags 2 comments Add comment
The better question, in fact, is whether or not worship is the #1 priority for me?  Because if I asked the question, “what will you and I be doing for all eternity?” the answer would be worshipping.  

The Westminster Shorter Catechism said it this way in question/answer format:
Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
To “glorify God” and “enjoy him” are worship. Loving God is worship. Living for God in every way is worship. To be a worshipper is to simply put God at the centre and forefront of everything in my life. It is to say that he is worthy of that place in my life.

And for the follower of Christ, according to the Bible, that life of worship manifests itself in two ways: day-to-day living and regular times of corporate worship. 

The scene in heaven of the saints and elders and angelic hosts around the throne of God is a foretaste of what is to come to for us. And we should prioritize similar worship here and now. We should “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25). That passage in fact, indicates that as we get closer and closer to “the Day” we should be worshipping together “all the more”. 

So, is it a priority for you? Is it the most anticipated time of your week? Do you find yourself thinking about worship midweek wishing it were sooner? Do you come to worship eager, ready and energized to sing, give, serve, pray, hear the Word preached and respond to it? That’s what it means to have worship as my #1 priority.

We’re starting out in the book of Ezra this Sunday in a series entitled “Worship Rises”.  We’ll be watching as the people of Israel return from exile to re-establish their corporate worship. There were many challenges and obstacles to making that happen…just as there are many of the same for us. Almost everything in our lives will work to get in the way of us getting together to worship Jesus Christ and lift his name high.

Let’s not let that happen, but instead commit ourselves to the passionate worship of our God. 

We’re privileged to have Joshua Seller joining us this Sunday to lead us in worship. Joshua is the worship leader at Harvest Bible Chapel Oakville and has recently released his album, My King is Coming. 



See you Sunday,

Todd
ThuThursdayJanJanuary13th2011 Stuck!
Posted Thursday, January 13 2011 @ 6 AM byRoger Freeman Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
It was a short message and very much to the point:

“I’m stuck in a winter jacket and I can’t get out. I need help.” 

I received this text from the men’s department of a major store after Christmas.  I found this grown up son that can pin me to the floor and will be taking part in a demanding outdoor winter event standing helplessly by a rack of coats with an embarrassed look on his face.

He was just trying on a coat, zipped it up and the zipper got stuck.  It was too close for him to see what was stuck and it wouldn’t move.  He didn’t want to break it and he didn’t want to buy it so he could wear it home!  He just wanted it off, but he was too embarrassed to ask for help from the staff.

We had a great chuckle about it as we helped him out.  Some embarrassing situations I have found myself in come to mind, and no, I won’t share them with you!

We all get stuck sometimes, and we all need some help to see what we ourselves cannot see or to move what we ourselves cannot move.  Often we are too embarrassed to ask for help.   It is humbling to admit we are stuck.  It is humbling to admit we don’t really see clearly or know what to do.  It is humbling to say, “I need help!”

We get stuck in all kinds of ways.  Work becomes a rut, marriage becomes routine, responsibilities begin to bind and chafe, and soon we feel like we have no choices.  We don’t want what we have but can’t see a way to change it. Sometimes we have tried and gotten nowhere.  We’re stuck! Stuck in my job, stuck in my marriage, stuck in my schooling, stuck in my family, stuck in this town …

It is true that some things won’t change, nor should they.  It is true that change isn’t easy even when it should be attempted. But we can change.  Help can be found.  The first step is usually admitting that, “I need help!” Where can I get it?

1. Pray! So obvious; so often left till later.
2. Get a book.  If you are a man – read it also.  If you are a couple, talk about it.  (Did I say change is not easy?)
3. Get a friend.  Open up to someone – a mature believer!
4. Get a counselor.  Sometimes we need someone with the ability to focus God’s Word on our life in specific ways with specific tools!
5. Get an attitude.  An attitude of humility that is willing to admit when help is needed.  I am often surprised where it comes from when I am open to help.

We all get stuck sometime.  We all need help sometime.  Make the call!
WedWednesdayJanJanuary12th2011 Walk in the Word Update
Posted Wednesday, January 12 2011 @ 7 AM byHarvest Bible Fellowship Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
We're privileged to have had a partnership with Walk in the Word and Pastor James MacDonald since the planting of this church in 2001. In the coming year, we'll be launching our own Harvest Canada weekly radio ministry on Sunday mornings on Life 100.3 featuring teaching pastors from Central Ontario.  

Let's rejoice in the great work God does through such teaching ministries.  Here's a recent update received from WITW...

As we approach the end of the year, I am happy to tell you that God is at work at Walk in the Word. As we follow Him, and allow Him to direct our path, we are healthy and growing. It has been a year where we have flourished.

We want the exciting and miraculous events of 2010 to strengthen, develop, and prepare us for even greater things in the New Year.

God has blessed us in ways we never could have imagined. The Lord has allowed us to accomplish so much in 2010…

We visited 18 cities in 12 states during our Bus Tour. Hundreds gave their lives to the Lord for the first time and thousands more strengthened their faith and gained a deeper understanding of God's Word.

We expanded our daily radio coverage, and now Walk in the Word is heard on over 1,000 radio stations across America and Canada.

And this is amazing…We received a donation of a 20-million-dollar television production facility. The studio and the technology it provides will enable Walk in the Word to produce greater resources to reach more people.

These are just a few of the amazing blessings of 2010. And as great as 2010 has been I know that 2011 will even be better.

You and I may never know everyone impacted by Walk in the Word, or all the various ways lives are transformed by this ministry, but I am confident that as we continue to be faithful in passionately proclaiming His Word over the airways we are doing our part to fulfill the Great Commission.

Healthy things grow and flourish! When you sow into this ministry you are sowing into good soil that will certainly reap a harvest in the hearts and minds of millions.

There is nothing more important than planting God's Word in the hearts of man.

Know that I value and appreciate you and your partnership. I pray that you are encouraged to know that the Lord is using you, multiplying your gifts, and answering your prayers for our ministry.

Walking in the Word,

James MacDonald
TueTuesdayJanJanuary11th2011 35,000 to 50,000 people, giving thanks in Port-au-Prince
Posted Tuesday, January 11 2011 @ 1 AM byGlobal Ministries Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
Download the prayer points sheet here.

Last September, Joel Trimble and I stood by the corner of the collapsed Haitian National Palace. It’s a five-way street intersection, busy with car and foot traffic. It's also the center of one of the rougher tent cities, with tarps sprawling in and around the city center. We joined hands and prayed boldly that God would give us that exact intersection on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake – January 12, 2011 – for a massive rally.

We envisioned a gathering where thousands would come together – not to mourn for the losses of the past year primarily, but to pray for the future transformation of the country.

Today, I find myself in “believing disbelief.” God is blowing past our expectations: We have a signed document in hand from the mayor of Port-au-Prince, Mayor Jean-Yves Jason, committing that exact location to us.

Tomorrow morning (Wednesday, January 12), from 6 to 11 am EST, we are expecting between 35,000 to 50,000 people to come to this rally to give thanks for all that God has been doing in the nation of Haiti.

There will be praise, prayer, messages and testimonies, and Scripture reading, and CHC founders Pastors James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll will both be there to preach from God’s Word. There will be lots of music, too, including Alabanza, a renowned Haitian gospel band. Twelve Haitian church leaders have been on the planning committee, representing Haiti's Evangelical (CEEH), Baptist, and Methodist churches, Avidec, Radio/Tele Lumiere, Relarde, the Bible League, and many more. With well over 3,000 churches represented, we’re already seeing the unity we prayed we'd see at the event.

We often have to fight an uphill battle to execute a plan in Haiti. Yet, for an event this large, it’s been paddling downstream. God has gone before us and cleared the way from the very beginning.

Haiti is going through a major transformation – both physical and spiritual. Joel often says, that in his 30+ years there, he’s never seen such an openness to the gospel: “Haiti is in the greatest revival in its history. Yes, many people died, but many more are being saved.”

Please be in prayer for us as we prepare for this event, but especially, for the hearts of Haitians in and around Port-au-Prince to come to remember, renew their hope, and rejoice in God's grace.

Thomas Kim
Executive Director, Churches Helping Churches
FriFridayJanJanuary7th2011 "The people were unfaithful": Understanding the justice of God
Posted Friday, January 07 2011 @ 6 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
We start a new series this Sunday titled “Not Going Back” (see previous blog).  To get started on this journey through the post-exilic books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, we start with a little historical background from 2 Chronicles 36:11-23. In this short passage we’ll find out what we are not going back to because in order to understand the reasons and benefits of the Israeli exile, we need to know why God sent them into exile in the first place…why did he bring down his justice on their heads?

So this is the "how we got here" message.  For us, “here” means our sinful condition, without God, and lost in this world. It also means “here” in terms of God’s discipline on his children for specific sins issues. We don’t talk about that latter issue so much, but that’s what’s going on in this passage and this period of Israel’s history. They worshipped God, but there were things in their lives that they need to put behind them and not return to.

God’s intention is to get us to that place—a place where we enjoy all of the blessings of a relationship with him. I know that each of us wants that more than anything else. As this new year gets underway, we want to be happy; we want peace in our lives; we want to know that our life counts for something; we want to love and be loved. The only way to truly get all that is to have them flow out of an unhindered relationship with God.

There are likely things in all of our lives that need attention…that need to be put behind us. This message may just expose those things, get them out of the way and quickly get us to a place where we can experience the incredible blessings that await us as we renew and restore our relationship with the Father.  I’m ready to hear that message for myself as we get started on it this Sunday. 

See you then,

Todd
ThuThursdayJanJanuary6th2011 Carbon Monoxide
Posted Thursday, January 06 2011 @ 6 AM byRoger Freeman Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
One would think I should know all about gas leaks and carbon monoxide poisoning.  After all, I worked for a company that dealt with gas hookups, gas appliances, wood burning stoves, and the like.  I know CO sneaks up on you.  Odorless, silent, tasteless, murderous! The thing is, it only strikes if things are not working properly - if an appliance isn’t burning properly, the flue is blocked or some other problem is creating products of combustion that are collecting. 

Of course appliances can be tested, flues can be checked, and most importantly, alarms can be installed to warn us that all is not right; and they should be! Sometimes there are other products of combustion that do smell, so we become aware of a problem. That is what happened recently at the Harvest office, so we all had to work from Williams Coffee Pub.  It’s a tough life!  Something didn’t smell right so the experts were called and promptly told us to leave.  They were able to test and recognize the danger we were in.

Even I can see the analogy to our spiritual lives.  I let little things go and my walk with Christ becomes impaired.  The problems are not immediately noticeable so on we go, never realizing we are becoming impaired to the point we can’t even recognize it. We can put some things in place so there are people who can recognize it when something doesn’t smell right.  We can put things in place so some alarms go off.  We can live an open, transparent, accountable life so spiritual lethargy or sin doesn’t go unchecked and bring a slow death to our vitality in Christ. Like CO alarms, they only works if you actually use them!

So here are some markers...not a check list to get ticked off so you can feel good about yourself, but some markers to see if we are on the right path. 

We need to exhort and encourage one another by asking about…

1.     Faithfulness
“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.” 1 Corinthians 4:2
Am I working hard with a sense of urgency?                 
Am I being faithful to God’s will for me?

2.     Serving
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…” Mark 10:45
Am I effectively using my gifts (1 Corinthians 12) to build up the church (Eph 4)?
What am I doing to grow my gifts and my serving opportunities?

3.     Loving
“…do you love me more than these?” John 21:15
Have I loved God this week in personal and corporate worship, hearing of the Word, giving?
Have I loved my family by giving them appropriate time?
Is my home filled with joy and harmony?
Have I loved my church by engaging in the life of my small group?
Have I loved the spiritually lost by boldly speaking the gospel this week and ministering to the disadvantaged?
Have I cared for myself by taking a Sabbath’s rest? By eating and exercising this past week?

4.     Believing
“And without faith it is impossible to please him…” Hebrews 11:6
Where do I need God’s wisdom? Courage?  Faith?
Am I working on memorizing his promises to me from Scripture?

5.     Prayer
“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”
Mark 1:35
Have I been consistent in prayer?
What is causing me anxiety right now?

6.     Holiness
“…but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” 1 Peter 1:15
Am I living to the best of my ability and by the power of the Spirit in me, in obedience to God's Word?
Have any of my financial dealings failed to be filled with integrity?
Have I been careless in any way with my speech?
Is there any other area of my life where I have been tempted this week?

7.     Attitude
“My grace is sufficient for you…” 2 Corinthians 12:9
Have I been negative in my outlook this past week? 
Have I been encouraging or discouraging in my interactions with others this week?

Remember, as helpful as a check on these attributes could be, it only works if we use it.  Bring this list to your small group or share it with your accountability partner.  Review them during your own personal time with the Lord.  Where are you going to start?
WedWednesdayJanJanuary5th2011 Not Going Back
Posted Wednesday, January 05 2011 @ 6 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
We have all had difficult times in our lives…seasons of life when things were not going our way, when unforeseen circumstances were crushing, or the consequences of our own choices made life more challenging than we wanted it to be.

It would be easy to think, in such times, that God had abandoned us. That we were alone. That he didn’t care whatsoever for us. That somehow God didn’t love us enough to lift us out of the mess. It is tempting to want to go back to what we had before.

But we’re not going back. In every such circumstance and in every consequence of poor choices is divine intentionality. God’s purpose in every hardship is that we would be perfected and that we would grow in our knowledge of who he is and in the practice of living as his own people.

This was the experience of the nation of Israel. By 586 BC the people of God had sunk to an all-time low. The land, capital city and their beloved temple were in ruins, and the best of their people were either killed or carried off into exile at the hands of a ruthless foreign king. For seventy years they sat learning a hard lesson about the consequences of sin and what it means to hear God's voice and know his perfecting love.

Their failure was complete, but because of God’s covenant with them, their restoration would be amazing. God would use those long years in exile to turn failure into faithfulness. And they would never choose to go back. The benefits of enduring and having a stronger faith and knowing the love of God in this way far outweigh the suffering they faced.

In the coming months at Harvest Bible Chapel we will be looking at the narrative of the nation of Israel as it comes out of that long exile. The Old Testament books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, as well as Haggai, tell us the story of a people rebuilding their relationship with God in worship and their relationship with one another in community after learning some hard lessons about both.  It is an encouraging message of covenantal love, of faithfulness and hope in the midst of trial.

The series “Not Going Back” starts Sunday, January 9 with a prologue from 2 Chronicles 36:11-23 titled, "The people were unfaithful": Understanding the justice of God. The teaching continues January through early March in the book of Ezra and a sub-series “Worship Rises” as we follow along as the nation rebuilds its temple, re-establishing its worship.  Then from late March through to the end of June, we’ll be in Nehemiah in a sub-series titled, “Love Unleashed” where we will watch the nation rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem and re-establish their community.

The whole journey through the series “Not Going Back” and these post-exilic books will end on June 26 with a single message from the Book of Esther titled, “God is forever faithful in the midst of my failure”.  It is a message filled with hope and assurance as we rest in a God who is in control of all of life’s happenings and circumstances.  We can trust him. He loves us.

This is going to be a great time together in God’s Word over the next six months.  In all of these narratives we will see parallels to God’s great work in us today through his Son and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is the work of Christ on the cross and his victorious resurrection from the dead that demonstrates God’s great covenant commitment and love to us today.

Please take some time in the coming days to read Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther in preparation for our study. I know it will be a blessing to you. And pray that God speaks to us as individual Christ-followers and as a church family through these amazing narratives of God’s powerful love for his people.

Todd
TueTuesdayJanJanuary4th2011 Loving More…Loving Better
Posted Tuesday, January 04 2011 @ 6 AM byAmy Fotherby Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
January is all about resolutions for some people…I’m not totally on that program. I see the value…I just don’t think it has a place in my life, this year…who knows about next year. For 2010, one of the things I really wanted to do was work on loving people more and loving them better. It was exciting to learn our theme for the year was going to be Harvest Loves: ____________. I can see growth in this area of my life as I look back on 2010, but I’m going to spend 2011 focusing on this again.

Some questions I’ve been asking myself:
1. Who in my life is hard to love that I just really need to allow Christ to love through me?
2. Who do I need to show more love to? Is it through my words, my time, my money, or by serving them practically?
3. Who will the Lord put in front of me that I have a split second to decide if and how I will love this person? How will I prepare myself for this?
4. Do my words reflect a heart that loves God and the people he has surrounded me with?
5. Does my response to people and situations demonstrate love?
6. Am I a good representation of Christ’s love?
I’ve spent some time working through 1 Corinthians 13 again and doing a self evaluation:

1 Corinthians 13
The Way of Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

I don’t want to be a noisy gong or clanging cymbal…I don’t want to be a nothing in God’s eyes or gain nothing for his kingdom. I want to be used by him to impact people for Christ, encourage them in their walks, offer hope through life in Christ…so I need to make sure that I’m loving others more and better…

Love takes time, work and effort…it’s not always easy. But as a Christ-follower I don’t really see that it’s possible for me to avoid working on this area of my life.  It is a little exciting to wonder who the Lord will place in my life this year that he will love through me…or who will love me with Christ’s love?
MonMondayJanJanuary3rd2011 New Harvests in 2011
Posted Monday, January 03 2011 @ 6 AM byHarvest Bible Fellowship Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment
New Harvests in 2011
Harvest Bible Fellowship

"I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18

As the Lord continues to build his church, we are privileged to announce these new Harvest Bible Chapels in development for launch in 2011. For more information, connect directly through their web sites or contact form links below.

Help us spread the word—share this page on Facebook or via email so others can learn about, and get involved with, these new works of God!

>> Harvest Bloomington Indiana
>> Harvest Baltimore North Maryland
>> Harvest Chattanooga Tennessee
>> Harvest Perth Australia
>> Harvest Fresno California
>> Harvest Philadelphia Pennsylvania
>> Harvest Kathmandu Nepal
>> Harvest Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
>> Harvest Knoxville Tennessee
>> Harvest Rochester Minnesota
>> Harvest Metanoia Felnac Romania
>> Harvest Tysons Virginia
>> Harvest Niagara Ontario

Download the January prayer calendar.

Church Plant Challenge {Upcoming Churches} from Harvest Worship on Vimeo.
SatSaturdayJanJanuary1st2011 Time
Posted Saturday, January 01 2011 @ 9 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged No tags 1 comments Add comment
It starts in Kiribati apparently. The island nation in the South Pacific is the first on the earth to bring in the new year. Then the big party in Sydney, Australia with the biggest and best fireworks in the world where more than 100,000 projectiles are launched in a show that takes fifteen months to plan. And, of course, a million people gather for the dropping of the ball at New York’s Times Square.

And so many gathered with a bunch of good friends and family and simply had a party and counted down the seconds to midnight. It is a big deal…apparently. Since I’m usually up for a party, I’m good with that aspect of it. But the nagging question for me is whether or not God uses our calendar and clock. Did he too celebrate the start of 2011?

Here’s what I know: God stands outside of time. In fact, he stands outside of everything. In one mind-blowing verse, God says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” (Isaiah 66:1a). He’s reclining on the universe! We know that Jesus and the Father identified themselves as the “I AM”…the self-existent ones. They have always been. Before God ever said “Let there be light” and the universe experienced its first day, he was there from eternity past (Genesis 1:1-5). Somehow Jesus was “crucified before the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), and we were “chosen in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). To get this straight: Jesus crucified and us chosen at the same….time….before…time.

If we fast forward from pre-creation to the as-yet-to-be-realized-eternity and look the amazing book of Revelation, we find a strange mix of past and future tense verbs. The Apostle John is recording what he sees, what is done, what is accomplished. He’s not seeing a storyboard of what God hopes to accomplish. It is completed. Eternity has begun. And yet, we’re still waiting. The devil is already defeated, yet we await Christ’s return to defeat him. The “loud voice from the throne” said, “I am making all things new…” and he also said, “It is done!” (Revelation 21:5-6).

My head hurts. [Deep breath].

I can conclude only one thing: Everything is done. The “loud voice from the throne” also said, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” God is outside of time and everything is already…done. Eternity is already in full swing. The whole of human history happened in the “twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52). But, we’re still living it all out. We have to complete the timeline that God has set out.

So, I’ll come back to my original question: Did God celebrate New Years with us or not? We make such a big deal of it all, but does he? If we want his heart and mind in all things, we’ll want to know what he says about time, right?  Here goes…

Regarding the past, God would have us be done with it and also honour it. We are to be “forgetting what lies behind” (Philippians 3:13), but we are also to observe the Lord’s Table and “do this in remembrance” proclaiming “the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25-26). We are to look to the “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) in Hebrews 11 and emulate their faith, but we are to “put off the old self with its practices” (Colossians 39). We are to forget the past in terms of sinful practice and remember the past in terms of all that God has done.

Regarding “the Day”, God would have us anticipate the future that he has laid out for us and for his creation. Jesus said, “Surely I am coming soon” and our reply? “Amen. Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

And while we wait for that time to come, regarding this moment that I have right now, God would have us seize the day and live for him. We are encouraged to be “making the best use of the time” we have in front of us (Ephesians 5:16). We are to be “straining forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13b). We are to “run with endurance the race that is set before us” having our eyes “fixed on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

God is outside of time. God created time. This is his best counsel to us regarding it. And as we work to live out this counsel concerning the past, the Day and the moment, we should be encouraged that along the way God says to his people,
“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18-19)
God does new things. And with the passage of 2010 and the beginning of the new year, we bring to mind that our "salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed" (Romans 13:11).  That is something to celebrate! And I believe God celebrates that with us.

Have a happy and blessed New Year!

Todd
© Harvest Bible Chapel - Barrie
705-739-8613 | info@harvestbarrie.ca
Powered by iMinistries Church Website CMS.