Hello Knox and St Giles!

What helps you feel close to God?  Where do you find peace and beauty and joy?

One of my favourite ways to be close with God is to get outside and go into the foothills of Kananaskis country.  It is in the seeing of the beauty of the mountains, the smelling of the wildflowers, the hearing of the screech from eagles, and catching glimpses of wildlife that I feel so very close with God.  Witnessing fields – both wild and cultivated – grow throughout the summer reminds me of the magnificence of God.  All of this and more fills me with awe. 

Romans 8 reminds us that our Creator has adopted us as sons and daughters. We are heirs to God’s beautiful kingdom.  God’s unbound love assures us of peace and security in Christ as children and stewards for eternity.  We are blessed to be receiving all the beauty and goodness around us.

So … why then has God allowed the wheat to grow with the tares in cultivated fields?  Why has God allowed the children of God to grow up around the children of the enemy?  Why is there so much suffering allowed?

Please join us each week for Bible Study at 10:15 on Wednesdays to discuss questions like these and more.  Come be with your brothers and sisters in Christ to hear where others place their hope, and how they traverse experiences of prickly thistles in their lives.  If you feel comfortable, please share with us how you live into the certainty of knowing that the garden of God’s kingdom – your kingdom – will eventually be weeded by angels, or how you receive certain peace, healing, and joy even right now through life’s difficulties.

And until we meet next in Bible study, you are invited on Sunday at 10 am, together with your fellow heirs, to worship your Creator – the one who made the mountains and molehills and you!  Come sing your praises to the holy One who loves you, and has saved both Knox and St Giles for music, mission, and ministry.

Blessings,

Rev. Chandra Mannix

“Search me, oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting.”   – Psalm 139:23-24