Pastor Brad Bergman

This past weekend at Coastal Church we took time to honour and bless the mothers of our congregation. We don’t do this out of social convention or because it’s on our calendars. We do this because blessing and honouring parents is not only a Biblical principle, it’s a command. In

Today, it’s hard to know who or what to trust. Misinformation, strong opinions, and conspiracy theories are everywhere. There can be so much noise as people passionately argue that their point of view is the truth, and not only that it is ‘the truth,’ but that you must accept and agree with it in order to get along with them. Did you know that the devil is the author of confusion and misinformation? In fact, in the opening scenes of the Bible, his primary tactic was to misrepresent and undermine trust in God and His word. That’s what happened in Genesis chapter 3; it’s literally the oldest trick in the book.

In the Bible, there is a clear gift of evangelism, just as there is a clear gift of being a pastor or teacher. But sharing our faith, as Peter mentioned, is the responsibility of every follower of Jesus. Most of us probably won’t be preaching to mass crowds in stadiums like Billy Graham, but we all have people in our lives who need to hear about the hope inside of us. Evangelists are to be treasured gifts to the church, and my hope is that we can reframe the image of what an evangelist is through the journey of reading this classic book. An evangelist is one who is motivated by love, one who asks sincere questions, and one who is quick to point the way toward Jesus.

The Christmas season can be the most wonderful time of the year for some, and the most stressful or contentious for others. We hear Christmas songs about ‘peace and goodwill to men,’ but sometimes those can seem like concepts far removed from our own personal situations. As Christians though, we know that through Jesus and His victory over death we have peace with God (Romans 5:1). We know that Jesus gives us the peace of God.

The first thing that your spiritual enemy wants to do is to cause you to doubt your identity. He wants you to question if what God says about you is true. That’s what happened for Jesus and that is what happens for us. The devil doesn’t like it when we move from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. He will do anything in his power to erode the truth of God’s word in your life. That’s why it’s so important to follow Jesus’ example. Be rooted in prayer and in God’s word. And take hold of the authority that we have been given as God’s beloved children.

There are a lot of conversations in our world today dealing with the issue of freedom. But instead of getting distracted by issues of rights and people’s ideas of how freedom should be exercised in various places, let’s look at freedom from a Biblical perspective.

Transitions happen all the time and they take on many forms. Maybe you’ve started a new job, moved to a new home, country, or city. Perhaps you are one of the many who got married during the pandemic, or maybe you just got a puppy. You’ve had a baby, started school again, or your kids started having kids of their own. Maybe you were forced into early retirement. Transitions are an inevitable part of life, and it’s impossible to grow without them.

We have everything we need in order to finish well, but we need to choose to do so. We need to stay firmly planted in God’s word, in His house, and in His family. As followers of Jesus, we can run the race of life with our eyes fixed on Jesus until the very end. Our story doesn’t have to end like Solomon’s. It may be hard to stay on course, to stay obedient, to finish well, but it is more than possible with God’s help.

When faced with pain and suffering it’s natural to ask what the purpose of it all is. Paul tells us that we can be absolutely sure that God is working in our lives through it: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).