Guelph Vineyard Church

We are stepping back into our series about maturing in Jesus. As we started to unpack a couple of weeks ago, "maturity in Christ" doesn't = 'going pro' as a Christian. It doesn't mean getting stodgy and stuck in our ways, either. It is an exciting, dynamic and yes, sometimes painful process of becoming precisely who God had in mind when He created us.The LORD's intentions (read: God's will) for us might sometimes be locational and/or vocational. But the much deeper application of God's will concerns you and me becoming a particular kind of person, whatever our circumstances. We're going to consider what needs to be in place in order for maturity to happen and what some of the challenges are that need to be acknowledged and overcome in order to get where we are going.

It's the question travelling parents the world over dread, along with the inevitable follow up: "How much longer?" If the last year and a half have been good for anything, they've certainly been good for begging questions. Especially these two. Well, I have good news, and also some not so welcome news for you. No, we're not there yet, not by a long shot. But it's okay. Jesus is along for the journey, and when we do arrive at the destination, we will have been transformed. We won't be different people, but rather whole-hearted, healed, fully matured versions of ourselves. And we're gonna look an awful lot like Jesus. The Bible uses a Greek word translated interchangably as "maturity" or "perfection" to describe this destination: "Telios"In fact, during His sermon on the mount, Jesus says telios is the point. Throughout the New Testament, this word gets used over and over again as the object of our followership of Jesus. Maybe it's time

In the book of Revelation, John encounters a profound power and authority that is unrivalled elsewhere in Scripture. There are glimpses of it here and there throughout the Old Testament, but this is next level stuff. In fact, John's unrehearsed response is to fall at the feet of Jesus "as though dead". To this Jesus says, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last", echoing a curious phrase said earlier and again later in John's Revelation. "I am the Alpha and the Omega". This refers to the first letter of the Greek alphabet and the last letter. Jesus is implying many things when He uses this language, but not the least is His role in time. In the unfolding of our lives, Jesus is present. From before our first breath to our last breath and beyond, Jesus encompasses it all.  With this talk we'll close our series on the Examen prayer practice. The fifth and final movement of the Examen leads us to contemplate and prepare for what comes next. It asks us to anticipate G

Do you know the phrase "The devil is in the details"? It feels like an old proverb (it's not) that helpfully points out that what may seem like a good idea on the surface can lose its lustre the more you descend into the specifics. They're intimidating, the details that is. They're also conveniently easy to ignore…. for a little while. But unchecked, they can wreak havoc and ruin even the best "big idea". All this is why we must invite God into the details of our actual life. Not just invite Him into the moments of our choosing… but into all of it. The wins, the losses, the catastrophes and triumphs. The Examen prayer calls these details "Desolations and Consolations". It assumes that the older and less popular expression coined by French author  Gustave Flaubert: 'Le bon Dieu est dans le détail' trans: 'The Good Lord is in the detail'. - is a deeper and literal truth. We're going to talk about the assumption that the Lord has something to

Descartes said "I think therefore I am".We are fixated on what we think. Here I am, literally thinking about my thinking. But the truth is that we are emotional creatures first, we humans. It's a fact of the ways our brains work. The parts of our brain responsible for our emotions literally engage before the parts of our brain that process thought, shape intent or express language. Whether on the surface, or buried deep beneath layers of sediment, we emote our way through life constantly. Our emotions shape how we are in any given situation, regardless what we think we think about it.Thankfully, the Bible portrays a deeply emotive God. Remembering that you and I all were formed Imago Dei ("in the image of God"), and that our emotional life is a good expression of that God-likeness, this week we're going to talk about the 3rd movement of the examen prayer: Prayerfully considering what you're feeling. It's here that we hear this question posed by the Lord: "How are y

Who doesn't want to be more grateful? We all intrinsically know that living from a place of gratitude is a best-practice for living your best life. But how do we do that? Have you ever felt the burden of feeling like you should be more grateful in a situation that just honestly kind of sucks? Perhaps a well meaning friend gives advice about how you should see the circumstance you're struggling through, or maybe you encounter a scripture verse like this one: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18, and it feels more like a gut-punch than healing ointment. Practicing gratitude is the 2nd movement of the examen prayer practice we've been exploring lately, and we're going to take a good, honest look at the gift and burden of attempting thanksgiving in all circumstances.

One of the most famous stories about the prophet Elijah tells of him retreating, exhausted and afraid, into a cave for the night. There he meets God, not in the loud and the powerful events that follow but in deep quiet, with nothing more than a whisper. It kind of sounds like it's supposed to be peaceful, right? I'm not so sure. Sometimes, the quiet places are the places that ask the most of us. Maybe that's why sleep can be so hard sometimes… the stillness of the night can be a playground for our fears and anxieties. Perhaps the LORD, meeting Elijah that way, is not some zen-like moment of spiritual enlightenment, but rather the LORD showing up to Elijah's most vulnerable, frightened self. Do you relate?

Psalm 139 is one of the very best of the bunch. It opens with these startling, intimate and revealing words: You have searched me, Lord,and you know me.You know when I sit and when I rise;you perceive my thoughts from afar.You discern my going out and my lying down;you are familiar with all my ways. "How are you doing?" The Lord is so deeply interested in the answer to this question. Of course, like the psalm says, Jesus knows exactly how you are doing. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And that's part of the challenge of long seasons like the one we're in now. We can lose touch with what's really going on in our interior life. I believe the Holy Spirit is asking us this question, not for His sake, but for ours. We're going to get really practical and talk about a couple of truly sustaining prayer practices that will help meaningfully answer the question that God is most certainly drawing your attention to. How are you? 

The lives of David and Abraham loom large in the Bible. In fact, we can know very little about the big story of Bible if we are not familiar with the stories of these two people. The gospel of Matthew opens with these words: "This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham… " Jesus is introduced as the heir of these two great, complicated individuals who both walked in unique nearness with God and whose names became synonymous with the great promises of God to humankind.We're going to revisit the life of David. Perhaps more so than any other person in the Bible, we get to look at the interior life of David. He is certainly the defining personality of his day, and even more, his life shaped and helped to define much of the life of the Jewish people for centuries. He lived large. He won big. He failed spectacularly. And he allowed us a front row seat to see it all.

The lives of Abraham and David loom large in the Bible. In fact, we can know very little about the big story of the Bible if we are not familiar with the stories of these two people. The gospel of Matthew opens with these words: "This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham… " Jesus is introduced as the heir of these two great, complicated individuals who both walked in unique nearness with God and whose names became synonymous with the great promises of God to humankind. Over the next couple of weeks, we're going to take a dive into the lives of these two figures. We'll begin with Abraham, who we touched on briefly when we looked at the story of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham, the unlikely father of many nations.

The extraordinary account of Jesus's death and resurrection are loud in the scriptures… Jesus is betrayed to the Roman authorities by a crowd of people shouting for his death. Discovery of his resurrection is accompanied by cries of surprise, joy, uncertainty and confusion. When John relays the story of seven of the disciples' final meal with Jesus, a humble little breakfast in the early morning on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he records none of the conversation that took place while they ate. The powerful exchange between Peter and Jesus didn't happen until after the meal. The text actually indicates that during the breakfast, no one dared to ask the question that was burning on everyone's heart but that everyone knew the answer to… "Are you really him?" It seems it was a meal in silence. This second Sunday of Easter, we're going to consider what was on the faces of these eight friends during that shared breakfast.

Resurrection Sunday:  Our kids worked on some Easter crafts that they shared with us.  One is more of an Easter egg hunt as the kids share their "resurrection eggs". The other is inspired from the stations of the cross, so we opened with the kids, (not part of this podcast), then celebrated our risen Lord with worship and a short Easter morning reflection from Kris. Here is his message.

Palm Sunday marks the day that Jesus enters Jerusalem with singular focus: He has come to die. It's also the beginning of the death of the faith of Jesus disciples. Don't get me wrong, judging from outer appearances they enter the Holy city riding high. It's a party. Throngs of people are marshalling around Jesus. This is just the sort of the thing that the disciples have been waiting for. Jesus is about to overthrow their oppressors, they imagine. Enter Jesus, king of Israel, desolator of the Romans. Perhaps they began to fancy themselves as Jesus' version of king David's mighty men. They begin to feel that their hopes and dreams about Jesus are finally starting to materialize. Little do they know how wrong (and how RIGHT) they are.Throughout the course of the next week, the plot begins to shift. Jesus starts to get even "weirder" than usual.  He tells them to procure a donkey (a symbol of peace) rather than a horse (a symbol of war) for his entry. Jesus becomes downright a

Who doesn't love a good underdog story? Hollywood lives for the stuff we find in the origin story of King David, Israel's rags to riches king (sort of). There was nothing in the early life of David that hinted at his future. In fact, from a human perspective he was completely unprepared to rule a young, struggling kingdom. He broke every kind of mold and expectation, succeeded when all hope despaired and sometimes failed miserably when favour was on his side. We're going to start to dig into the life of David, specifically his encounter with the massive Philistine warrior, Goliath. 

As we've been exploring over the past weeks, the scriptures are full of extraordinary, complicated and often even R-rated characters and stories that together portray the many ways imperfect humans take part in the purposes of God. And then there's Isaac. A miracle child of Abraham and Sarah, finally, here we have a simple, even a bit naive, but deeply faithful and trusting person. True, he's part of a complicated family living in complicated times, yet in meaningful ways Isaac is one of the earliest biblical characters who clearly "pre-figure" Jesus (we'll talk more about what that means)… Isaac is a big part of the way the Bible sets the stage for the Lord!

Samson. The mightiest of the "mighty men of the Bible". Able to slay a lion with his bare hands and defeat an entire army with nothing but a bone in his hand. The dude with the sick hair. The broken, egotistical womanizer who lost his way and sort of found his way back again. The first superhero... And someone who is championed, rather surprisingly if we're honest, by the book of Hebrews in the New Testament and commended as a "hero of the faith".We're going to explore this very complicated biblical figure and ask… What does the story of Samson have to do with the story of Jesus? 

Some of the key ideas you will hear about are:you and God are one, you are partners, there is a unionthe big arc of the story is about lovemoving from transaction to interaction to relationship to partnership with Godthis union is real but it is activated by faith. Learn how to receive what is withinfrom experiencing God to God experiencing youWe hope you enjoying hearing from our our beloved and esteemed Brady Wilson as he shares these ideas and more, as well as the application in our lives, reflecting on some things that have been stirring in his heart regarding the Lord's invitation to the Guelph Vineyard as a community this year. 

Our first deep dive into the stories of the Bible is going to take a look at the life and times of Esther, the unlikely Queen of Persia. Thanks to Maya for requesting this one! Esther's story is truly remarkable. It's a story full of political intrigue, betrayal, familial loyalty, revenge and justice. The book of Esther is actually unlike any other book of the bible in at least one significant regard. Curious what that is?  Have a listen to find out!

Whether we like it or not, we tend to accept something if we hear it often enough. This is the theory behind those annoying commercials and ads that seem to play over and over again on repeat. They may annoy us, but the messages they convey get into our heads and affect the decisions we make. The stories that we are surrounded by and immersed in really matter. This is one of the great purposes of the Bible in our lives. Yes, the Bible reveals truth. Yes, it reveals the heart and nature of God. But perhaps most powerfully, it tells and retells The Story. It sets a stage, gives us a history, a way of understanding our own role in it, and it gives us a future. It leads towards an ending (which is really a new beginning).Over the next little while we're going to take a look at some specific Bible stories and see how they fit into the big story that God is writing… you know, the story we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of. The stories we know, the stories we tell, the stories we live... well they matte