Crossroads Community Church

July 4, 2013 · 0 Comments

Lovely Sunshine welcomed us and the children ushered us in with singing Oh Canada. Pastor Don gave a prayer of thanksgiving to God for our wonderful country and the freedom we have to gather to celebrate in Jesus name. Announcements were shared and worship began with the children singing “He Loves Me Too” and the team followed with graceful heartwarming praises.

Pastor Don smiled and asked,” So you’re Canadian Eh?” Then he proceeded with a quiz on Canadian facts, “How many provinces and territories? All answered ten and three, what’s the nation’s Capital; Ottawa, what are Canada’s two national sports; Hockey and Lacrosse, what is the nation’s most eaten food; Mac N’ Cheese and we have more of these per capita than the US? Donut shops. In 1980 “Oh Canada” was proclaimed our National Anthem. Our Country is blessed with freedom, as our anthem states, “God keep our land glorious and free.” What is freedom? Life is full of warnings, everything from fishing hooks that states harmful if swallowed, or careful coffee may be hot and Don’t drive with the sunscreen protector in place, all these warnings are to help us live free of harm. This is the essence of Christianity; the Bible says Follow God’s commandments and all will be well, a warning yes but for our benefit, (Psalm 119:44,45). Unfortunately many religions have made it drudgery instead of freedom.

So why do we have areas in our lives in which we struggle to be free? Strongholds, those sinful behaviours we just can’t seem to overcome and we cannot fight them by human methods, (2Corinthians 10:1-6). We are human and the weapons of God are available through Jesus Christ. We are in a spiritual battle so we need God’s help to overcome them, (Ephesians 6:12). Satan is against us, he pursues us and keeps us from being free. He uses these strongholds to hold us captive and away from knowing the truth of God because he knows that truth sets us free, (John 8:32). Strongholds start very early in life, in the way we are brought up, the things we are exposed to and experiences through life that influence our ways of thinking and behaving. Even false doctrines from human religion can have unhealthy strongholds on our lives. (1 Timothy 6:10). All these things are not God’s will for us, they are lies from the world that beat and tear us down and hold us in bondage, but only the truth of God sets us free.

Strongholds can have great power over us because of our own attitudes like pride the unwillingness to admit we are wrong and to change, lack of self-control craving everything we see and obsessing over them,( 1 John 2:16). Our unbelief also keeps us from our freedom, we doubt ourselves and make excuses like ”I’m only human,” or “I’m just not good enough”. God‘s word tells us that we can do all things through Jesus,(Philippians 4:13). When we push towards our freedom we will face trials and we will need to ask Jesus to strengthen us, and he gives us the ability to experience true freedom in our hearts.

One of the biggest strongholds is fear. Most human beings have been fearful at some point in their lives, we are hesitant to try new things because at some point we suffered ridicule or rejection but God’s love casts out all fear, he gives us the tools and confidence to face our fears, (1 John 4:18,19). Beloved, at Crossroads we aim to rely on God to face our fears and we aim to love others as ourselves, it is what motivates us to reach out in new ways to those around us from invitations to celebrate our Country together, to an evening of praise in the park and hosting a Cowboy Church; we do it all to share the love of God with those who don’t yet know freedom in Jesus Christ. We are truly grateful to God for giving us the freedom in Canada to love you all in Jesus name, Asherey Shalom…. To read more visit our website http://www.shelburnecrossroadschurch.ca