Today we will reflect on Luke 23:39-43; Romans 8:1-4; 33-39, Today You Will be With Me in Paradise. The thief on the cross asks Jesus to remember him. There is no fear quite like the fear of being forgotten. The beauty of Jesus is that he doesn’t forget us and because he doesn’t forget us, we have salvation, a place with Jesus, even after death. The Bible gives us different images of what Paradise is like, the one thing that connects them all is that this is where we find Jesus and that even after death we will be with Jesus. As Paul writes, “nothing can separate us from the love of Christ,” not even death !

Today we are beginning our Lenten series: Words from the Cross. We will reflect on Luke 23:24-25, 32-34, Father, Forgive Them. In many situations, forgiveness is one of the most difficult things to offer to someone. Jesus emphasizes the importance of forgiveness in his prayer when he teaches us to ask for forgiveness for our sins. He then goes on and teaches that when we forgive, then the Father will forgive us, but if we do not forgive, then the Father will not forgive us. This is a frightening thought in so many ways! On the cross, Jesus who never sinned and yet was tortured, falsely accused, and then sentenced to death an innocent man asks the Father, “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Forgiveness takes a deep trust in God and a humility that takes hard work to cultivate in our hearts, souls, and minds!

Today we are once again celebrating the sacrament of baptism. We will be reflecting on Psalm 139:13-14, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. Psalm 139 reminds us of how precious each one of us is, and how God actively shapes and forms each one of us in the womb. The Psalmist confesses that all God’s works are wonderful, God is the original creator who has created us in his own image! In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul picks up on this theme, when he writes that we are masterpieces of God. Next Sunday we will be blessed to place God’s sign and seal on another child of God, a masterpiece of God!

Today we are celebrating the baptism of Pax, the newest member of our church family.  We will reflect on 1 Samuel 1:27-28 and 1 Samuel 2:1-10, God’s Faithfulness. The birth of Samuel to Hannah and Elkanah came about after a long season of prayer to God. In Samuel’s birth, we see God’s faithfulness and presence, and how God can transform our grief into great joy. In Hannah’s prayer, she rejoices in God and his faithfulness, looking back to God’s long presence with his people and how he humbles the proud and exalts the humble. In Hannah’s humility, she offers Samuel to the Lord, recognizing that our children are a gift given to us, but they are God’s children first. We have a responsibility as a covenantal community to walk alongside the parents to help them raise Pax to know and love the Lord. 

Today we are celebrating GEMS Sunday. Our Bethel GEMS will be participating and leading us in our worship service on their theme for the year; Romans 12:1-2, Transformed. Paul calls us to not conform to the patterns of our world but to be transformed. We’re transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we become new people, focused on Jesus and able to know what God’s will is and to follow it .

Today we will wrap up our series on what we hunger for, by reflecting on John 6:35-51, A Hunger for the Gospel. Jesus gives us a picture of the gospel message in this short passage. Jesus gives life as the bread of life, he comes from heaven to claim his people and they will have eternal life. Jesus is both fully human and fully God and so he’s the only one able to give us life and forgive us all our sins. Death and sin are part of the world, but Jesus is returning to restore and reconcile all creation to himself.

Today we will reflect on John 14:1-14, A Hunger for the Truth. Jesus tells his followers that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way to God and the only way, the personification of truth, the center of life. But today many people ask the question that Pilate asks before condemning Jesus, “What is truth?” Many today believe we each create our own truth but is this even possible to live this way together as a community and society? Because our society has made the idea of truth a slippery concept, we will reflect on how Jesus and Scripture interpret truth.

Today we will be celebrating Cadet Sunday. This year the theme of the Calvinist Cadet Corps is Lead the Way based on 1 Timothy 4:12. We will be reading 1 Timothy 4:1-16 to give ourselves the reason Paul is writing to Timothy and encouraging him to be an example to the church and not be discouraged if some look down on him because of his young age. How we live is important because people are always watching us; building godly and biblical habits in our lives is important, as how we live shows what and who we believe in. As followers of Jesus, Jesus is the one who teaches and shows us how to live as his people.

Today we will reflect on Luke 7:36-50, A Hunger for Belonging. God created us in his image and God is a community within himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We’re not meant to be alone; this is why many people who find themselves on the outside of society or a group hunger for a place to belong, a place where they are accepted. But because of sin, we tend to create groups and those who don’t belong are kept on the outside. Jesus encounters a woman on the outside of society, a woman who is scorned and told that she doesn’t belong. Yet she is the one who comes to Jesus and honours him, who recognizes that he will accept her, even in her situation. Jesus offers her forgiveness, and invites her through his forgiveness, a place to belong.

Today we will reflect on Psalm 25, A Hunger to be Seen. We live in an often harsh and critical world, and this can sometimes shape our relationship with God as harsh and critical. We all desire to be seen and valued or appreciated by others, especially those who are important to us. Loneliness has been determined to be the health crisis in our time, we desire to be loved. When we know we are seen and loved, we can better able to love others and ourselves. This helps us to find meaning and hope in our lives. God reveals himself as love, and his relationship with us reflects his love to us; in the coming and death of Jesus, in the giving of the Holy Spirit, and in the gift of a church family that acts out God’s love.