Bethel CRC Lacombe

Today, we will reflect on Ecclesiastes 11:1-10, The Work of God . God created us to work, to have dominion over creation and help it flourish, responsible human work is part of God’s creation plan for humanity, but human sin spoiled God’s good creation, work is now much harder and made our work less certain. Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sin and to restore the good creation. Jesus sees wor...

Today, we will be finishing our series on Ecclesiastes by reflecting on Ecclesiastes 12:1-14, The End of the Matter . Solomon now comes to the end of his journey of examining the world from the perspective of “under the sun.” He discovers that he’s been looking in all the wrong places, and his search leads him back to his Creator, the God of heaven and earth. Solomon calls us to remember our Creat...

Today, we will be returning to our series on Ecclesiastes by reflecting on Ecclesiastes 8:2-17, The King and Obedience . When Solomon calls for obedience to the king, he’s speaking about obedience to God as our king. Solomon has been reflecting for so long about life under the sun, and as we near the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is turning his focus more and more towards God, recognizing that with...

Today, we will be continuing our series on Ecclesiastes by reflecting on Ecclesiastes 9:1-12, The End is the Same for All . We will be reflecting on death and life. In the end, we will all die, and for Solomon, death is the great enemy, the punishment for sin. No matter how hard you work, how much you gather, or how evil you’ve been, we all end up the same, in the grave. This is why Solomon encour...

Today, we will be celebrating Pentecost by reflecting on Ezekiel 37:1-14, The Holy Spirit Renews Us . Pentecost is about the coming of the Holy Spirit, but this is already foreshadowed in the Old Testament in a number of places, including Ezekiel 37. Israel is in exile, and hope is lost, and the people feel like dry bones, that life has left them. The Lord comes to Ezekiel with a promise of new li...

Today, we will be celebrating Ascension Day. We will reflect on Acts 1:1-11, Being Witnesses . After Jesus’ resurrection, he spent 40 days with his followers, teaching them and preparing them to continue the work he had begun. Jesus leaves them with this charge, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This is the call of the church still...

Today, we will reflect on Ecclesiastes 7:1-8:1; Ecclesiastes 9:13-10:20, Wisdom is a Good Thing . These are two passages that reflect on what wisdom looks like, and yet what wisdom looks like in various circumstances can be difficult to figure out. When we live under the sun only, wisdom is often overlooked or even rejected. Wisdom is often disregarded because of who it comes from. Wisdom is a goo...

Today, we continue our series on Ecclesiastes by reflecting on Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12 , Contentment. Wealth carries its own temptations, as Solomon observes. If you love wealth, you’ll find that you will always be striving for more, and living a life of thankfulness becomes almost impossible; wealth can harm you through worry, stress, and hurt relationships and trust in others; wealth can be lost....

Today, we re-enter our series on Ecclesiastes by reflecting on Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 , A Time for Everything . This is a well-known passage, yet there is more to this passage than many of us realize. Solomon is looking at life under the sun, where everything is always changing. There is little permanence in our lives; everything we build will one day fall, we are born, but we also die. This leads us...

Today, we will reflect on Ecclesiastes 4:1-16, A Cord of Three Strands. Solomon is seeing the pain and brokenness in the world, but he’s also seeing how many people walk alone in the world and reflects on the value of companionship, that two are better than one, that a cord of three strands is not easily broken. We are not called to walk alone; we were created in the image of God, created for comp...

Today, we continue our series on Ecclesiastes by reflecting on Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Careful Words . In this passage, Solomon is warning us about the power of our words and how we speak to and about God. God is in heaven, he is the creator of the universe, and we are his creations, valuable, precious creations, created in God’s image, and we are called to humbleness and respect for God.

Today, we will be reflecting on Leviticus 18, Intimate Holiness . God reminds Israel of the actions God took when God liberated God’s people from Egypt, and then God uses that as the reason for calling God’s people to holiness. So, when a holy and majestic God acts to redeem us, we will not live recklessly or indifferently before that God. Instead, we surrender ourselves to the one who redeemed us...

This week is Good Friday. We will be hosting our Good Friday service at 7:00 p.m. and will be reflecting on Leviticus 23:26-32, The Greatest, Most Dreadful Day . This passage is on the Day of Atonement, a reminder that the daily and weekly sacrifices for sin were not enough to atone for the people’s sins; the sacrifices were a temporary measure that God gave the people to enable them to come close...

Today is Easter Sunday! We will be reflecting on Leviticus 25:8-22, New Life! Jesus is risen and brings new life and hope into the world as death is defeated, sins are forgiven, and our relationship with God is healed. We will be reflecting on the Year of Jubilee, a year where people who are slaves are set free, people who have lost their land have it returned, and all debts are forgiven. The Year...

Today, we will be reflecting on Leviticus 17:1-16, Power in the Blood . As you read through the Bible and are introduced to the sacrificial system of Israel, you begin to see how blood represents life. In the sacrifices, we see how the sacrifices point to the seriousness of our sin and that the cost of our sin is life through the shedding of the blood of the animals. The original punishment for si...

Today, we will be reflecting on Leviticus 13:1–8, Mold, Mildew, Sores, and Infectious Diseases . God communicates our need for holiness in all areas of life by giving rules for the transmission and elimination of unclean matter. This pointed God’s people to a greater spiritual reality: Living in God’s presence requires holiness in all of life, and ultimately God provides holiness for us.

Today, we are celebrating GEMS Sunday. The GEMS theme this year comes from Deuteronomy 7:6-10, Walk on Water . Girls everywhere are battling the storm of life and are tossed and turned by waves of lies, doubt, and fear. Many girls are simply treading water, looking to culture, social media, or peers to determine their identity and define truth. In Deuteronomy 7:6-10, we discover God’s faithful cha...

Today, we will be reflecting on Leviticus 8:1-13, The Go-Between . Aaron and his sons are chosen to become priests for Israel. Priests in Israel offered sacrifices on behalf of the people, and after the Tabernacle was built, the priests were the ones who were able to enter the Holy of Holies to offer the sacrifices of atonement for the people. They acted as mediators, as go-betweens between the pe...

Today, we will continue our series on Ecclesiastes by reflecting on Ecclesiastes 2:17-26, Work is Meaningless . For so many people, their identity is wrapped up in what they do to earn a living and put food on their table and a roof over their head. Unfortunately, we then equate our value by what we’re able to accomplish rather than in who we belong to. We will take a look at how work is a good th...

Today, we are beginning our Lenten series Holy God, Holy Lives as the 40-day Lenten period in the church year begins this Wednesday, a time of reflection as we journey to the cross on Good Friday and Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. We will begin by reflecting on Leviticus 1:1-9, When God Moves In . Leviticus is all about our holy God calling for his people to be holy as he is. It’s a book of sacrif...

Today, we return to our series on Ecclesiastes by reflecting on Ecclesiastes 2:1-11, Pleasure is Meaningless . Our “under the sun” understanding and experience of pleasure is so often “me” focused instead of cultivating pleasure in God. We are a culture lost in meaningless pleasure, filling our minds and souls with vapid meaninglessness; this can cause us to miss meaningful God-moments and encount...

Today is Cadet Sunday, and we will be reflecting on 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, Stand Firm . We will reflect on being on our guard, standing firm, being courageous, being strong, and doing everything in love. The Cadets and their counselors will be leading us in the worship service.

Today, we are beginning a series on the book of Ecclesiastes, a book found in the Wisdom section of the Bible. The word “ hevel ,” often translated as “meaningless,” is found 38 times in this book, making it an often-misunderstood book of the Bible. Over the next few months, we will explore what “ hevel ” is and where the author is looking to guide us in search of wisdom.

Today, we will have Pastor Chad Vandervalk leading us in worship. We will be reflecting on Genesis 1:26-31; Jeremiah 29:1-14, Life and Work in a Broken World . God’s original call for humanity to cultivate and extend the goodness of creation still stands today. Though sin brought brokenness, God has promised renewal, which has been initiated through Jesus and will be completed at the final restora...

Today is New Years Day. We will be reflecting on Luke 6:37-42 , Noticing God in the New Year . As we enter into a new year, we will reflect on what to keep our eyes on as we journey through the 365 days ahead. We can choose to keep our eyes on each other; unfortunately, this often leads to a lot of comparison and judging of others. This year, let’s make a commitment instead to keep our eyes on God...