Since March of this year, I have had the great privilege of taking counselling courses from the Christian Counselling Education Foundation located in Pennsylvania, USA. Despite only taking two courses so far (Dynamics of Biblical Counselling and Helping Relationships), the Lord has greatly used these courses in my life. Both courses have been intensive, heart revealing and transformative.

One of the rhythms we strive for as a church is to remember, reflect, and give thanks.  It’s easy in our fast-paced culture to move on from one thing to the next without taking the time to pause and to see the hand of God at work in our lives.  Knowing this tendency in us, God was constantly telling the Israelites to pause and remember.

One of the dangers in our current Christian landscape is the dichotomy of those who are Christian versus those who are disciples.  We have unnecessarily and unbiblically created a subcategory of Christianity that would be foreign to the first century follower of Jesus.  John Mark Comer writes, “Contrary to what many assume, Jesus did not invite people to convert to Christianity.  He didn’t even call people to become Christians; he invited people to apprentice under him into a whole new way of living.  To be transformed.”

This week as we begin to move into the summer months here in the Maritimes we will be starting a new series in the book of Psalms.  Most people—even unchurched people—are familiar with this book in some form or fashion.  And there’s a reason for that: the Psalms are the language of the soul and they provide for us the full expression and experience of a real life relationship with the living God.

During our current series, Neighbours and Nations, we introduced a couple of partnerships that we are beginning to engage with over the next year.  As a church we believe deeply in the picture that we get from Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”