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Calvary Grace Gospel Work

On Christmas Eve there will be a service at our house in Canmore. It comes out of the community group that has been meeting here for the past couple of years. God has blessed this Gospel work and I believe it is significant that the people in this group have keenly endorsed an “official” service.

In the role of Home Missionary I have over the past 10 months seen God develop areas of ministry in international, local and semi local contexts. You could call them “arms” of Calvary Grace Gospel work. There have been two international ministry trips to the UK where the aim has been to serve, strengthen and encourage other churches, and form Gospel partnerships in order to fulfill the Great Commission. There have also been providential doors opened at local Ambrose University College where I have been able to do some teaching on Biblical manhood to the students. This Christmas service in Canmore is a latest development in semi local Gospel work, where there is already a weekly small group (as above) and a men’s group.

It is important to see that this is Calvary Grace Gospel work. This means that we are all involved: leadership giving oversight and strategic planning and church members being involved in prayer and active participation.

For example, much prayer was poured into the recent UK ministry trip that I made. This was encouraging not only for me but also for the UK churches, and the trip was effective and fruitful. I just heard a recent piece of news regarding a man who was saved after coming to one of the speaking events. Then there has been the regular posse of Calvary Grace men attending the Ambrose talks. I sometimes think there will be more of us than students! Yet this support has been a strong testimony to the truth of what is being taught. As well as hopefully being fed by the teaching, Calvary Grace men have been a great help to the students by imparting wisdom in the application session that we do after the message. Then there have been the folk who have travelled out here to Canmore and attended both the men’s group and community group and have even committed to serve on Christmas Eve. Again there has been a mutual ministry.

Paul exhorts the Romans to pray in this way:

“I urge you brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God’s will I may some to you with joy and together with you be refreshed. The God of peace be with you all. Amen” (Ro. 15:30-33)

Listen to D. A. Carson’s reflections on this passage: “(a) What Paul asks for is prayer for himself. (b) If the Romans respond by praying, they will by their prayer be joining Paul in his struggle. (c) The particular struggle Paul has in mind is his relationship with unbelievers in Judea; he wants his service for the poor there to be so acceptable that he will be able to leave quickly and make his way to Rome. (d) Within the context of the chapter, this trip to Rome is part of his plan to evangelize Spain. In short, Paul asks for prayers that will further the Gospel in various ways.”

And I would add “in various places”! So pray and join the struggle of Calvary Grace Gospel work locally, semi locally and internationally. And pray in particular that the mystery of the Gospel of Christ is proclaimed boldly on Christmas Eve and that light shines into darkness: because Christmas is about the love of God saving sinners from the wrath of God through belief in the Son of God.

“For God so love the world that he gave his only Son that whoever would believe in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).