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Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the gentiles, and that they will hear it. Acts 28:28

Some 15,000 Jewish people in Israel call themselves members of Messianic Judaism, which is an acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. As many as 250,000 people in the United States claim to be Messianic Jews. These people, although still following many of the tenets of their Jewish religion, recognize the deity and resurrection of Jesus as Christ and Lord. Although this sounds impressive, this number represents only a tiny percentage of the world’s Jews. Because Israel as a nation rejected Jesus when He came, only a tiny few have ever been saved. As Paul pointed out to the Jewish people in Rome, God had turned to the Gentiles, and many of them were welcoming the Gospel.

Today, many groups of the gentiles are also rejecting Jesus, just as the Jews did two thousand years ago. And just as He did with the Jews back then, God is turning away from the nations that have rejected Him and is turning to those people who will listen to the Gospel. Canadians as a nation are rejecting Him, and are seeing God save souls in other places.

Many times, a series of Gospel meetings in a community fails to draw any of the people in that community to hear the Gospel. The tent or hall is filled with Christians who bring their children and their friends. But from the actual community, the no-show is almost total. They will not hear the Gospel, despite the valiant efforts of preachers and helpers to issue invitations and texts. Sadly, God is listening to their rejection, and frequently, a Gospel series comes and goes with no visible impact on the community. The day of visitation comes and passes, leaving people responsible for their rejection of the Gospel.

Amid the struggles to get people out under the sound of the Word, the discouragements of poor attendance and lack of interest, listen to the words of today’s text, ‘the salvation of God is sent unto the gentiles, and.. they will hear it.’ God is still saving souls, still rescuing the perishing, and still working in the hearts of the lost. We just don’t see it around here very much.

In lands and places where the Gospel is going forth with power and is being received, preachers are delighted at the response. Pray that people in our land would see the folly of their rejection, and turn to the Saviour. -Jim MacIntosh

Written by Murray McCandless

Some of you may have seen the Johnny Cash movie, Walk the Line. When Cash was 12-years-old his older brother died in a tragic accident. Cash’s father took his grief out on Johnny. “Death took the wrong boy” his father told him time and time again. His brother was the good boy. He should have lived. Johnny was the bad boy. If anyone should have died, it should have been Johnny. No wonder Johnny Cash spent so many years acting out his rage and his feelings of being “no good.” Can you imagine a father doing that to his son? No wonder that, for many years of his life, Johnny Cash engaged in self-destructive behavior. It’s a wonder he survived at all. But isn’t it great that, by the end of his life, Johnny Cash discovered a Heavenly Father who accepted him just as he was.

Cash’s situation may have been extreme, but there are many people who feel for one reason or another that they do not belong, that their life has little value. They consider themselves to be failures who can never measure up. Many of these rebel in anti-social behavior. But there are many others who, while they do not rebel, put themselves under an intolerable burden of expectations that they cannot possibly live up to. These expectations produce both stress and fatigue. To be able to relax and be ourselves is one of the greatest benefits our faith gives us.

It is sad when someone wishes they were someone else, but worse when a parent wishes you were some else!  Why do parents play the favorites.  I know that some children can give more concern than another child, more worries, always into more trouble.

There was a family in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis, and Dad and Mum played their favorites.  Isaac’s favorite was Esau, the elder son, and Rebekah’s was Jacob!  This situtation brought untold grief to that ancient household.  Esau was everything Jacob wasn’t as far as Isaac was concerned.  Esau loved to hunt wild animals, and was likely full of his wild stories about his expeditions.  Jacob was just the opposite, no big hunter, the younger son, but he was Mum’s boy without question.

It wasn’t long, and the tension grew in the family…and the elder son threw away his future blessings as the eldest in the family for the sake of a bowl of stew!  Jacob the younger brother, saw a value in the birthright, that his older brother didn’t see, and cashed in on the deal, as the prepared stew was his.  As it often goes, Esau didn’t realize the value till it was too late, and then the family feuds began, and never ended!

The Lord Jesus told the story of a man in the New Testament with two sons in Luke chapter 15.  The older boy considered himself  ‘Mr. Goody Two Shoes’ and possibly his parents felt he was just that!  However, ‘Junior was another story’ called the younger son by the Lord Jesus, and called the prodigal by many Bible story books.

One day, the younger son thought he had all he could take of possible home restrictions etc, and packed up, and left to find a life for himself!  He found one, but not as he thought…he took great care in gathering all together, so the unexpected would never happen, but it did.  Suddenly he found himself without funds, friends or family.

This wise father didn’t finance him in the far country, but patiently and lovingly waited for him to come home!  That is exactly what he did, he did not come home, till he came to himself! That is exactly what it says in Luke 15:17  However, the wise father played no favorites, but that younger son became a son twice.  When he was born, and then when he was ‘found’ or saved, as it states before that, he was lost!

We have had earthly fathers, some of us are earthly fathers, and we make and have made plenty of mistakes!  How good to have a Heavenly Father, that is never impartial in his judgment, His love or His mercy!  What Johnny Cash didn’t have in an earthly father, he found in a heavenly father, so you have a Heavenly father? When were you born again into his family?

So who knows anything about Johnny Cash’s older brother…who knows anything about the ‘prodigal’s elder brother?  Only the ones that were saved, do we know anything about!

Murray A. McCandless   2070 Route 121 Norton   NB E5T 1E9 

Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. John 9:28

Sometimes an insult turns out to be a wonderful compliment. Such as the Pharisees speaking of the Lord Jesus: This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. Or the folks in Antioch, speaking of the zealous little group of followers of the Lord Jesus, in derision calling them Christians. May we all ever be worth of such an insult! In today’s account, the Pharisees accuse the formerly blind man of being Jesus’ disciple, and they had enough evidence against him to excommunicate him from the synagogue. They couldn’t imagine a worse insult. And we couldn’t imagine a higher compliment! What about you, if somebody were to accuse you of the ‘crime’ of being a Christian, would they find enough evidence to convict you?

Would the world find you guilty of using the language of a Christian? Would they hear you quoting Scripture, and hear you giving thanks for your food at meal times? Would they hear you inviting people to Gospel meetings and telling how the Lord reached and saved you. Would they hear you speaking without off-coloured jokes and without using the profanity and obscenities that litter the language of the world? Like Peter, would thy speech beray thee?

Would the accusers find you associating with other known ‘criminals’? Would they see you gathering frequently with others to spend time listening to and discussing the words of your Leader? Would they hear you shun the organizations of society and religion to recognize the simplicity of gathering to the Name of the Lord Jesus? Would they find you in regular attendance at Gospel and prayer meetings? Would they find you preferring to keep the company of fellow-believers rather than the companionship of party-goers and revelers of the world?

It’s actually a very good thing if the world finds us too Christ-like to be part of their company. Let us make the effort today to give them the evidence they need to cast us out of their synagogue. -Jim MacIntosh

Written by Murray McCandless

The world is getting scarier all the time. Environmentally, economically and ecologically, we seem to be going from bad to worse. From reports of wide-reaching economic devastation to the epidemically troubled Africa, and other countries the outlook is very grim. From the black atmospheric cloud looming over Asia, to the busting up of the Artic,  the sirens seem to be sounding constantly.

Towns and cities are trying to deal with tainted drinking-water, and the uncertainty of the food we buy right  here in Canada, confirms that we live on a confidence shaken planet. The current worldwide tenor is one fear and uncertainty. There are cultural anxieties that seem to add to this sense of fearful doom. Uncertainty seems to be the only certainty.

Playing on these anxieties, politicians, marketers, and media producers know well that fear is a compelling motivator, and a profitable one at that. They reach our wills and our wallets trying to convince us we can rid ourselves of worry, but buying into their party or their products.

While the worry and unrest that is ever being stirred into the worldwide caldron may indeed be based on real concerns, the combined ingredients in this pressure-cooker are at best worth a second look. Who is it, and what is it that is holding us in such gripping fear?

I read an interesting story about Mrs. Wilma Sullivan, a widow who lives alone in Portageville, Missouri.  She was sleeping in her quiet house on a quiet street among quiet and friendly neighbors. She had gone to bed about 11:30…Not that she had worried unduly about her personal safety, but the doors were locked tight and nobody could have opened a window even if they had tried. She was sure of that.

“She picked up [a] novel…and settled down to read for a while. She grew sleepy. She put down the novel, turned off the light and settled down to sleep.

“As best she could reconstruct the night’s events later, she must have fallen into a deep, relaxed sleep. Then about 2 or 3 a.m. she came up ever so gradually to the border between sleep and waking. She moved, put her arms above her head and dozed off again. All was still quiet, peaceful and relaxed. She had no fearful apprehensions, no premonitions, no worries.

“People who sometimes sleep with their arms above their heads, myself being one of them, will understand what happened next. It was a minor matter. Her left arm simply grew tired of the position. She was dimly aware of the discomfort. It continued. Still dozing, she tried to lower her arm. It wouldn’t come down.

“Then, she says, she became aware of a warm, firm hand holding her arm tightly. She woke up in a hurry – and in a panic. She struggled in the dark to free her hand, but the strange hand wouldn’t turn loose. The harder she struggled, the tighter the grasp grew. She was struck by how warm that hand was, and how firmly it held her. Frantically, she tried harder to get loose. Then something dawned on her. It was her own right hand doing the holding! Her words ‘I nearly fell out of bed laughing. But I didn’t.’ She finally managed to pry her right hand loose from her left, and laughed a while, and then fell back to sleep for the rest of the night, and no harm was done

I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow. So whatever you do – get to know Him – because you’ll need Him. And He’ll be there for you. He’ll be there when everybody and everything else has gone. He’ll be there for you in the dark places. His promise to you is, ‘… Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning’ Psalms 30

Just think, no matter how dark the night, you’ve always lived to see the morning. Right? Somehow His grace has protected you, provided for you, secured you, calmed and comforted you, and brought you through. Times and seasons change, but not God. He’s always ‘… the Father of all comfort… ‘ and He’s watching over his every child night and day!  Make sure you one of his children.

Murray A. McCandless   2070 Route 121 Norton   NB E5T 1E9    mmccand@nbnet.nb.ca      

Written by Murray McCandless

When the pastor introduced the visiting speaker, an elderly preacher walked to the pulpit and told this story: ‘A father, his son, and his son’s friend were sailing off the Pacific coast when a storm overturned their boat sweeping all of them into the ocean.

Grabbing a rescue line, in a split second the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life – which boy to throw the other end to and which one to sacrifice. He knew his son had accepted Christ and his friend hadn’t. Anguished, the father yelled, ‘I love you my son,’ and threw the rope to his son’s friend. By the time he’d pulled the boy back to the capsized boat his son had disappeared beneath the waves. His body was never recovered.

The father knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus and couldn’t bear the thought of his friend facing eternity without Christ.’ At the end of the service a teenage boy approached the old man and said, ‘That’s a nice story, but what father in his right mind would sacrifice his son’s life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian?’

‘You’ve got the point,’ the old preacher replied, ‘It’s not realistic. But I’m standing here today to tell you that story gives me a glimpse into what it must have been like for God to sacrifice His only Son for us. You see…I was that father, and your pastor here, was my son’s friend.’

In order for anyone to be saved, some one had to be sacrificed.  God sacrificed his son, so we could be saved. We tend to think of this truth, as universal, when it is personal. It is true the provision is for all mankind, but the possession of  eternal life is personal.

None one could love their son, as God loved his son, for the simple reason, our sons as much as we love them, are not perfect, neither is our love.  God’s love is absolutely perfect. His love is linked with his character, therefore  it is never partial or preferential. God loves without a cause, and without attraction, something that we can not even understand.

Fredrick Lehman gave us that beautiful song about the love of God, when he wrote these words. ‘The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.

He continued to write, ‘Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure—The saints’ and angels’ song.

Another has written ‘I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore.’  Through the message of the gospel, a life line is thrown to us who really were strangers to God, we are not his child, until born into His family.

The lesson of Divine love is taught unmistakably at the cross when I see God not sparing His own Son to redeem me.  The lesson of life through the death of another is graphically displayed. I begin to “know” only at Calvary.  All other knowledge whether of ritual or religion, dogma or doctrine, theory or tradition is as nothing if I have not first responded to God’s love. John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Murray A. McCandless   2070 Route 121 Norton   NB E5T 1E9    mmccand@nbnet.nb.ca      

Written by Murray McCandless

Most people can understand, and in measure sympathize with some one who has fallen on hard financial times personally or corporately. But sheer greed is another matter. Conrad Black, formerly a Canadian sits in a Florida prison for the same reason. Another Canadian Bernard John “Bernie” Ebbers  co-founded the telecommunications company WorldCom and is a former chief executive officer of that company, for the next 25 years of his life, he will make his home in the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana.

In 2005, he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the largest (to date) accounting scandal in United States history, as a result of WorldCom’s false financial reporting, and subsequent US$11-billion loss to investors.

Without naming them, we have some big names in the financial world that live here in New Brunswick. They work hard to compete globally with their businesses, and in doing so have given many Maritimers excellent employment. I get a little tired of their critics, tell me where would we be without them?  These same people, all things considered live very modestly.

A sell out crowd went to see and hear Elton John at the Metro Center, and many spent money they didn’t have for the same. That will help him finance the half a million dollars in a single year, he spends on cut flowers for himself. (Times Literary Supplement, 14 December 2007, 27). Think what kind of perpetual gardens could have been established for inner-city Londoners with those same funds. At times the wealthy will blow almost incalculable amounts of money on absolutely nothing, while the poor struggle to live on absolutely nothing.

The oil-rich nations of the United Arab Emirates, rule in dynastic wealth. For license place number #1 someone paid 14 million dollars.  A few hundred miles south of these oil drenched countries, whole households try to survive on less than $2 a day. The Bible says there is no difference, if we were sitting on oil we would do the same.  Sitting on potash isn’t too bad, from what my farming family and friends tell me.

Or take the CEOs of financial institutions now going broke and wanting government bailouts, all the while taking salaries of hundreds of millions of dollars. A salary ratio of executive compensation to average worker of 400 to 1 (50 years ago it was 20 to 1). Now, these greedy individuals want to privatize profits but socialize losses?

If I am being critical I must balance this with the fact, that Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffet and have combined their wealth to donate billions to charity, which is much to be admired.

The Bible does not so much condemn the rich, but it does condemns the love of riches, and covetousness. 1 Timothy 6:9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

The richest man that ever walked planet earth, that owned everything, was the one that became poor. 2 Corinthians 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

You would think that this was written yesterday, it was written 2000 years ago! James in his epistle writes about these men of great greed. James 5:1-51 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. v2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten. v3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.  v4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. v5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

World financial conditions affect all, but for the most part we go back to a simple way of life in Atlantic Canada, which we enjoy.

Murray A. McCandless   2070 Route 121 Norton   NB E5T 1E9    mmccand@nbnet.nb.ca      

Written by Murray McCandless

As a father, a grandfather and a pilot, I can’t get that tragic accident in Montana that happened last month off my mind. I have flown many times to Florida, and other places sometimes in a Piper Navajo Chieftan, with (11) on of us on board, all from one family, the family  happened to be mine. We were legal, one was less than 2 yrs old. As I write I am not far from where this happened.

There was something about turning around during the flight, looking at all those lives, realizing they were dependant on two Lycoming 310 hp engines, and one heart beat, that was mine.  Everybody would be so happy looking forward to a safe arrival in the Florida heat, whether it was in the hours of the night, early morning hours or mid day.

It would be unimaginable, as an absolutely stunned father and loving grandfather, Dr Bud Feldkamp III, took that cell phone call from his nephew advising him that an aircraft had gone down not far from Butte Montana, with the words ‘ I think it was our plane’.  Bud and his wife turned away from the gate to that exclusive ski lodge in Big Sky Montana and headed for a dreaded dark sky at the edge of a cemetery.  Words would fail to describe how Bud, his wife, and a surviving daughter must have felt as they stared in horror and disbelief at the charred wreckage,  and a  20 ft crater created by the impact. Then there were the white plastic sheets covering the remains of their two loved daughters, their husbands and seven much loved grand children.

The six of them attended college together. They pursued graduate degrees at the same university, then all settled into medical professions and started families at around the same time. And on Sunday they were all sitting on the same private plane, with their seven young children, headed to a much-anticipated ski vacation at an exclusive resort.

I know the Pilatus 12, single engine turbine aircraft was numerically overloaded, but not necessarily over the weight limits. Felkamp and his daughters were listed as owners of the 2 million dollar aircraft. Mr. Felkam and his surviving family will never come to terms with such a tragedy.

Some reading this article know how hard it is to lose one family member, but that many at once, is staggering. Most remember a family reunion hay ride here in New Brunswick that turned tragic on a Thanksgiving weekend, a number of years ago.  That has to live in the minds of family members to this day.

Job the man, whose story has a book in our Bible just before the Psalms, lost 10 children in one day! It says in chapter one concerning Job’s reaction to that catastrophic lost, he said  ‘the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.  In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Any tragedy gives rise to more questions than answers.  We look at the pilot, a 65-year-old Bud Summerfield, a veteran air force captain, with thousands of hours experience, and in fact 2000 hrs in the Pilatus. Summerfield’s last communication with Salt Lake Center indicated no physical or mechanical problems, as he requested decent and a change in arrival airports.

Again we realize, the young, the old, the affluent, the poor, all are faced with the brevity of life. Personal life insurance policies are of little comfort. One fact is a comfort, children under the age of accountability were in Heaven, before the senior Feldkamp’s got the news. This could only be a comfort to believer that knows what the Bible teaches.

We may live very simple lives in comparison to the Feldkamps, but the importance of being spiritually ready for the unexpected and unavoidable, can not be over stressed. A farmer by the name of Amos, whose book bears his name in the Old Testament said ‘Prepare to meet thy God.’ Amos 4:12

Murray A. McCandless   2070 Route 121 Norton   NB E5T 1E9    mmccand@nbnet.nb.ca      

Title: Sunday School Picnic
Location: CAMP TULAKADIK
Description: Annual Sunday School picnic will be held at Camp Tulakadik with lunch being served in the dining hall. Activities involving swimming, games, etc. onsite.
Start Time: 11:00am
Date: 2009-06-27
End Time: 16:30

Directions are as follows:

From Norton
From Route 1 at Norton, take Exit 175
Turn south onto Route 865
Drive 12.7 km on Route 865
Turn left onto Sederquest Road
Camp Tulakadik is 131 Sederquest Road (1.4 km from Route 865)

From Sussex
On Route 111 from Sussex Corner, drive 17 km
Turn right onto Poodiac Road
Drive 5.4 km on Poodiac Road
Turn right onto Sederquest Road
Camp Tulakadik is 131 Sederquest Road (1.6 km from Poodiac Road)

Title: Sussex Flea Market Outreach
Location: Sussex Flea Market
Description: Booth for giving out free gospel literature and bibles will be operating at the Sussex Fleamarket. Your prayer and support would be appreciated.
Start Date: 2009-08-14
End Date: 2009-08-16