God at Work

Understanding

 Last autumn, the Lord led us to invite the church to participate in a nine-week campaign called “The Gospel Centered Life.”  We invited everyone to sign up in small groups. Each Sunday we would preach on the subject the participants would study during the week. To our amazement, 110% of the church signed up (that is, non-Christian visitors signed up as well)! I found that my faith was too small—I had not prepared enough booklets.

During this nine-week period, the church really grew in their understanding of the Gospel. Many groups loved the experience so much they decided to keep meeting. But the best in all of this was the conversion of a woman named Lise who came to Christ during the campaign! She said, “For the first time, I understand Jesus’ forgiveness!”

We concluded the campaign by offering J.D. Greear’s book, Gospel, for $5, which had just been released in French. We sold 40 books.

Beginning to Understand

Catherine is a mother of three young children who started visiting us to give her kids a religious education, although she claimed to be an atheist (We Quebecers are just full of paradoxesJ). She has been attending for over a year and is even serving in the church.  We appreciate her greatly.

Recently, while talking with her over lunch, I learned, to my great amazement, that she no longer saw herself as an atheist. Her journey has brought her to believe in the God of the Bible or “the God of the discourses” as she said. She told me she did believe in God’s love but found it hard to believe that God loved her! 

Last year this was my thinking: ‘I do not want to delude myself. I am a big girl now; I do not need to believe in God to reassure myself.’ But now, I am able to say to myself … even if the universe is controlled by measurable and explainable physical laws, that in no way lessens the possibility that God exists—that God could have created all of this … if he has created everything, then that would mean that he loves us, wouldn’t it? He loves us … But it is still a bit too much for me to think that he might actually love me personally … But maybe, if I was to write again about this next year, I may see things differently …” 

“He understands that, but your journey is surely not over,” said I.  She nodded.

Please join me in prayer to plead with God that He may accompany her and many others to discover His great personal love.

—Karl Fortin is the Church planting pastor at Connexion Church in Plessisville, QC