Beacon Bible Chapel
204244 Keswick Rd. N4G 4G8 Tillsonburg, ON, Canada

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Pastor Ponderings for January 13, 2021: Quarantine. We returned from a lovely visit to Texas where we spent Christmas with family. It had been nine years since spending the holidays with them. You can imagine my surprise to return to Canada to hear about all the resignations of politicians who travelled during lockdown. There is much pent-up frustration in our society. Today, as with each day since our return, and until the 16th of January, we are in quarantine. Starting ...Continue reading

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Pastor Ponderings for January 6, 2021: Playing House. I read an old quote recently that I have been stirred over. I invite you to read it slowly and consider carefully. John Henry Jowett (1863-1923). Now, the range of our possible sufferings is determined by the largeness and nobility of our aims. It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows by the cultivation of an insignificant life. Indeed, if it be a man's ambition to avoid the troubles of life, the recipe is perfect...ly simple -- let him shed his ambitions in every direction, let him cut the wings of every soaring purpose, and let him assiduously cultivate a little life, with the fewest correspondences and relations. By this means a whole continent of afflictions will be escaped and will remain unknown. Cultivate negations, and large tracts of the universe will cease to exist. For instance, cultivate deafness, and you are saved from the horrors of discords. Cultivate blindness, and you are saved from the assault of the ugly. Stupefy a sense, and you shut out a world. And, therefore, it is literally true that if you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble you must reduce yourself to the smallest compass. And, indeed, that is why so many people, and even so many professedly Christian people get through life so easily, and with a minimum acquaintance with tribulation. It is because they have reduced their souls to a minimum, that their course through the years is not so much the transit of a man as the passage of an amoeba. I work to support my family and provide, not only our needs, but also the many luxuries we enjoy. Is there any average Canadian not enjoying North American luxuries? I have been labouring to side-step suffering and cultivate comfort and convenience into our existence. Truly this is, at least in part, my duty and responsibility as a provider in our home. While this is not to be frowned upon, it is wise to take inventory from time to time. Occasionally, I will pause to evaluate if affluence is minimizing the lasting substance of life. I have to ask myself: Does suffering in any form interfere with my playing house? Has my blessed state made me quick to overreact when called to suffer? How is my focus and effort impacting the big picture? Am I settling for playing house in a little life? What does largeness of life mean for me? We are told in 2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Am I easily offended in, or overprotective of my little life playhouse? I am reminded that this playhouse is fine and fun for what it is. But it is not the only substance in a large life. We can exchange our little kingdoms for substantive structures with a renewed focus on Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. See more

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