So Proud of Amanda

As you may or may not know, Amanda is currently doing her Bachelor of Theology through the University of South Africa. I am so proud of her for taking this step and I am very impressed with how she is doing. She has read to me a number of her assignments and I have totally been blown away. I only wish I could right as well or think as deeply as she does. Amanda is far beyond where I was when I started seminary, much less where I was in my undergraduate studies. Often, people comment that Amanda is going into my line of work. If you mean she is going in the area where I already happen to be, you are right. But she is not following me! Amanda is following her own call and it might look very different from mine. She would be doing this even if I was a garbage man or a lawyer. I am proud of the way Amanda is responding to God's call and I look forward to how God is going to use her as he reveals his ministry for her.

Bringing Back Memories

Sunday night, Amanda and I made the trek down to Brantford. It was Deane Proctor's induction service as Lead Pastor at Queensway Baptist Church. It was a wonderful service with inspiring worship and a challenging message from Elaine Poproski. I have known Deane for a number of years. Deane has just begun the Arrow Leadership Program which I graduated from in March. Deane will be a great fit at Queensway and we were very pleased when we found out he had been called to minister there. Queensway holds a pretty special place in my heart. Just over a decade ago, I had quit the ministry... and I had not even graduated from seminary yet! After one experience, I had begun to doubt my call. Then Don Fraser, one of my professors and pastor at Queensway, called me up and asked me to interview for the youth pastor position. I did and was surprised to be hired. I could not believe I was actually getting paid to be a pastor! It was at Queensway that my call to the ministry was confirmed and it was at Queensway that I discovered my compatibility with the Baptist tradition, having been an Anglican and a Pentecostal previously. I enjoyed working with Don and later Ralph Neil, as well as associate pastor Carol Caswell. It was at Queensway that I was ordained as a pastor in 2001. When Amanda and I returned on Sunday, it has been eleven years to the month that I had started at Queensway. Much had changed and much was familiar. It was nice to see old friends and to watch as they begin this new stage of ministry. May God richly bless Pastor Deane Proctor and Queensway Baptist Church!

First Baptist Memory Book

This year is the 125th anniversary of First Baptist Church Meaford. As part of our celebrations, I have put together a memory book of some pictures and other items. If you are interested in purchasing a hardcover copy of the book, you can here.

If you are or would like to be in the Meaford area on November 1, you can join us at 11:00 am for our 125th Anniversary Service with special guest speaker Dr. Stanley Porter, President of McMaster Divinity College and my co-author of Unmasking the Pagan Christ. Keep checking www.meafordbaptist.ca for more details.

Finding Jesus at the Truck Stop

It is nice to see CNN report on this story of one man's mission to reach out to fellow truckers. As a son of a long time truck driver, I really appreciate this story. You can read the story here.

Halo

A number of years ago we felt that we needed a service dog for our son to help him with some of the issues with autism. A couple of years ago we received, after a lot of fundraising, a beautiful chocolate lab named Milo. We loved Milo and he was a really fun dog. Unfortunately he was not the best service dog. Some of his issues did not fit well with our family dynamic. After a year he was retired from the program. We hoped that we would receive a replace dog from National Service Dogs. Yesterday, our prayers were answered. Our new service dog named Halo (yes, we have called him Milo numerous times) arrived. He is an incredible and beautiful black lab. He fits so well into our family and is already working out well. We are looking forward to how he will bless Logan in the coming weeks, months and year. Our thanks for to National Service Dogs for their flexibility and generosity in providing this wonderful dog.

Can Hollywood and God Co-exist?

CNN has an interesting article on God in the current movie scene. What is Hollywood's attitude toward God and Jesus? This is an interesting question considering Hollywood was originally planned as a Christian community. You can read the story here.

Another Great Vacation!

I have been on vacation this week and it has been a great one. Monday night Amanda and I flew out to Montreal. I had never been to Montreal except to refuel on my way to another destination. We stayed in old Montreal in a beautiful small hotel that had loads of character. We enjoyed touring old Montreal and were impressed by people's willingness to speak English to us (I may be French Canadian but I cannot speak any French). We saw lots of interesting things including the Biodome and had a pleasant dinner cruise. Thursday morning we flew back to Toronto and went to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is an incredible opportunity to see the DSS in Canada and I was happy to have this chance. We enjoyed the rest of the ROM as well. I always enjoy their Egyptian exhibit. Thursday night we saw U2 in concert. They were one of the few bands that I like that I had never seen in concert. I was not disappointed. They put on a tremendous show. It is not just about the music (which is great anyway) but everything that goes along with it including light show, video and all kinds of theatrics. It was a great time. We got back to Meaford last night at 3:00 am and were happy to see the kids this morning.

I would like to thank all the people who watched the kids while we were away. Erin, Nicci and Kati did a great job of taking care of the kids and making their time fun. I would especially like to thank Amanda for all her work in putting this vacation together. There were a lot of details that needed to be taken care of including hotel, concert, flights, childcare etc. Amanda did an incredible job of getting everything together and making sure that everything worked out. Her hard work translated into a very enjoyable vacation. Thanks Amanda!

Happy Birthday Abby!

Today is Abby's seventh birthday! Abby is a wonderful little girl. Bust she is a handful. She has been a handful since before she was born. Before she was born they discovered cysts on Abby's brain that could have been very serious. In addition, Amanda was in a very serious car accident while still pregnant with Abby. Between those two incidents, we consider Abby to be our miracle child. Whatever allowed her to survive those things continues to give her a strong will. Abby can be a lot of work. But she is also extremely adorable. She loves to cuddle into us and gives us kisses and hugs all the time. She has done well in the last couple of years at school and we look forward to lots more growth as she develops into the girl God designed her to be.

Having Confidence in Our Faith

Last Sunday we continued our series on Galatians by looking at Galatians 1:11-2:10. The issue was: why do we believe what we believe. Paul was challenged on the validity of his Gospel by the false teachers and Paul responded with a rare glimpse into his personal life, both pre-Christian and Christian. Paul was a zealous Pharisee who converted after meaning the risen Christ. He began preaching the Gospel years before going to Jerusalem, receiving his Gospel from Christ and not from human authority. Eventually Paul did go to Jerusalem, but Peter, James and John only confirmed his Gospel, they did not give it to him. From this, I see three important ways for us to have confidence in our faith.

1) Paul had a strong biblical foundation as a Pharisee. We too must base our beliefs on the Bible and not the latest good idea.

2) Paul actually met Jesus Christ. We must be more than Bible scholars, we must experience Christ. We do this by surrendering our lives to him and allowing him to be active in our life.

3) Paul was not afraid to present his Gospel to the Apostles. Our faith also must be consistent with historic Christianity.

If any of these areas are missing, we should be re-checking our beliefs.

New Web Page

I have set up a new web page that contains some of my personal information and links to all my blogs. Make sure to check out www.stephenjbedard.com.

Back to School!

This has been an eventful day for us. It has been a long summer. The weather might not of been hot, but we noticed the lack of school. Abby, and especially Logan, struggle in the summer. They like the routine and the activity of school. We try to keep them busy but with five kids and lots of rainy weather, it is a challenge.

Today we sent Logan and Abby back to school. Logan is now in grade three and Abby in grade two. We also sent Justus and Emma to pre-school and Faith to daycare for the morning. I also had my first day of pre-school as we belong to a co-op and so each parent volunteers a certain amount of the time. It takes a lot of organizing to get everyone ready (backpacks, lunches, dressed etc.), not to mention the logistics of all the drop-offs. I must say that Amanda did a fantastic job of organizing everything and everyone. Everything worked out fine. Abby had some emotional reactions to the full day but we all survived our first day of school. We are very much looking forward to getting into our routine.

Fearless

Rarely have I seen such a timely book as Max Lucado's new book Fearless. Our world is almost completely defined by fear. Headlines are filled with fears of new super-plagues, terrorist attacks, economic recession/depression, and ecological disasters. Despite all of our technological advances, there is a greater spirit of despair rather than a hope for a better world. Improvement in information technology simply means that we have a better idea of how bad things are and that we know it quicker. Fear is epidemic both on a global and personal scale.

Max Lucado reminds us that the Bible has much to say about fear. Of all the statements that Jesus made to his followers, the greatest number were along the lines of not fearing. Lucado takes us on a tour of some of these passages, dealing with such issues as fear of danger to children, death, an unjust world and an uncertain future. A book dealing with fear could easily become a bunch of psycho-babble with a few Bible passages thrown in for authority. That is not what Lucado does with Fearless. The strength of this book is that it is so solidly biblical. Lucado has obviously done his homework and he has wrestled with what scholarship says about these passages. However, this is not a dry exposition of the Bible. Lucado illustrates each passage with both personal and historical experiences that keeps the readers' attention. These illustrations do their job of highlighting the meaning of biblical passages without becoming overly distracting. Lucado is quite candid with his own experiences of fear and the reader is drawn to a place where fears can be faced with the Good News of Christ. One of the things that I appreciated was that Lucado does not just present biblical theory but provides practical suggestions to apply biblical principles to fear. Fearless is one of Max Lucado's best books that reflects his mature faith that has faced trials but has also tested God's faithfulness. This is a highly recommended book.

Love, Not Hate

Sometimes the church's greatest enemy are Christians, even pastors. Recently, a Baptist pastor in the United States announced his hatred of Barack Obama as a person and even prayed for his death. You can see the video here. I listen to his words and I can not recognize any Gospel. When the Bible tells us to pray for our leaders, it is not for their deaths. The Gospel is about love and not hate. I am one Baptist pastor who strongly disagrees not just with this man's words but his theology as well. God is love, God is not hate.

Ancient Wall in Jerusalem Discovered

If you have an interest in archaeology, as I have, you might find this story from CNN interesting. An ancient wall was discovered in Jerusalem. You might not think that is impressive, after all, is not everything in Jerusalem ancient? Well, this wall pre-dates the Hebrew occupation of Jerusalem and was likely built by the Canaanites. This is a very important find.

Amazing Lack of Grace

Last Sunday we began a new series going through the book of Galatians. We began with Galatians 1:1-10. The basic situation of Galatians is that Paul had planted churches in Galatia and that after he left, false teachers came among them. Paul had taught that they need only put their faith in Christ and by the grace of God they would experience eternal life. These teachers taught that these non-Jews had to convert to Judaism and then convert to Christianity. This was a huge problem for Paul. Saying that the Galatians had to take on the Jewish law was adding something to the grace of God and making their message no longer Gospel. Paul reacts quite strongly to the Galatians strong consideration of accepting this message.

The application for us is two-fold. First of all, we must know the Gospel. If we are to protect ourselves from counterfeit messages, we must know the real thing. Secondly, we must not add to the grace of God. Some people believe sacraments, spiritual disciplines and moral lives are required to become children of God. All of those things are important but they responses to the grace of God, not means of earning it. The whole point of grace is that you can not earn it. We receive eternal life only through our faith. Adding to this is always a dangerous thing. For the next couple of weeks this message can be heard or read at www.meafordbaptist.ca.

The Fear of a Child

CNN has a story about a teenage Muslim girl who has recently converted to Christianity and is now fearing for her life - from her own parents of all people. You can read the story here. It is difficult to know how much of this is the media and/or lawyers trying to inflame an anti-Muslim prejudice and how much is based on fact. It does seem clear that the girl does live in fear and that fact is quite sad. Lot's to pray for in this situation.

Six Years Ago...

It was six years ago that I started at Woodford and First Baptist Church Meaford. It is hard to imagine what life was like back then. I had left Mount Hamilton Baptist Church with no other church to go to. I was technically out of the ministry and did not know when or if I would be back in. Logan was freshly diagnosed with autism and Abby was just a baby. Out of the blue we heard from these churches in a place we had never heard about before. I was not sure what to make of it all. I showed up for the interview not knowing if it was time for me to go back into the ministry. Things clicked well with the search committee and then very quickly I found myself preaching for a call and beginning my new ministry. Very soon we saw we were in the right place. Services for the kids came quicker than we ever expected and we were welcomed into the life of two very friendly church families. I have seen great growth in Woodford and First Baptist, not in numbers only although there are new faces, but in spiritual maturity and passion for ministry. It seems like just yesterday that I was the new kid on the block in our ministerial but now, not including a pastor who has announced her retirement, there is only one more pastor here from before me. Things have changed greatly in our family, purchasing our first house, having Abby diagnosed, welcoming three more children in our home, but what remains the same is God's faithfulness. I continue to enjoy my ministry and I look forward to what God will do in us and through us in the coming years.