Temple Cambridge

Twenty-nine years ago this Sunday, I had the great honour of marrying Lori Henry from Medicine Lodge, Kansas. She is my wife, my best friend, my only lover, the mother of my children, grandmother of my grandchildren and primary ministry partner. I have many names for her: “Babe,” “Lori Lou” (it's her Kansas name where many women go by two names), and “Honey.” What I don't call her is “Ball and Chain.” I actually hate when people call their spouses the "old ball and chain.” The description “old ball and chain” is better directed to our sinful nature before we became believers in Christ. But is the sinful nature still our ball and chain? Come this Sunday and find out the answer as we study Romans 6:5-14.

Happy Victoria Day weekend! The unofficial start of summer. Some of you take the weekend to weather the cold and go camping, while others of you are planting your flowers and vegetables as we are now supposed to be in the frost-free zone. For those of you who are not away, I would encourage you to come to worship with us and hear Pastor Kyle teach us from Romans 6:1-4 on how we are united with Christ in baptism. This is a liberating truth, and I hope you will embrace it fully. Have a great weekend!

Happy Mother's Day! I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel guilty as a parent for the weaknesses and sins that I have seemed to pass along to my children. This week we are going to find a lot of comfort from Romans 5:12-21 that Christ is more powerful than our parental sin. He can make a generational change to us and our future family! His grace is greater than our sin whether we have kids or not!

God's timing is perfect. It may not always feel this way, but may I encourage you with a gospel verse? This Sunday, we are going to study Romans 5:6-11. These verses are pregnant with spiritual life. Paul starts out reminding us that while we were weak, this weakness is not about physical strength, but moral strength. You could paraphrase, while we were morally disabled, just at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

I hope you had a good Easter weekend last week and you are still joyful that Jesus died and rose from the grave for you. This Sunday we are going to see some practical implications of Jesus being delivered up for our transgressions and raised for our justification from Romans 5:1-5.

He has risen! Christ has risen indeed! This weekend we are focusing on what Christ did for us through just a few verses in Romans 4:23-25. Why not read and memorize to hide in your heart? Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification!

How did people get saved before Christ came? That is one of the big questions that we will be discovering this coming Sunday from Romans 4:1-23 and it has relevance to us now because we can easily fall into the same patten of thinking as to how we get saved today. Do we have to perform certain rituals to be saved? Do we have to do a bunch of good works to prove we are saved? Could I challenge you to read Romans 4 this week and discuss the above questions with your family and small group this week?

How are you responding to God's mercy to your sin? Trying to take advantage of it? (That won't work!) Thankful to God and showing it in your faithful obedience? May God be praised! On Sunday we will be looking at these questions and more as we study Romans 3:21-31.

Are humans basically good? We hear this often. People just need to channel the good from within. They point to all the good in the world. This week I would challenge you to read, study and then come listen on Sunday as we preach from Romans 3 to see things from God's perspective. I think some of you will find this shocking and believe all of us will find it helpful and hopeful.

It's here! Our Annual Celebration Sunday where we look back at all God did in the previous year and seek the Lord for the coming year in both direction and provision. The team has worked hard to provide a very engaging Annual Celebration. You may have noticed the ramp up to the Annual Celebration as we shared testimonies these last few Sundays. New this year, is a focus on our vision in the morning service as well. The evening is a can't miss event. Those who are members even get the privilege to vote on our 2025 Budget and Elders. See you there!

What are the dangers of judging others? We might be wrong as we don't know the whole story? We might make too harsh or too soft a judgment? We don't like to be judged ourselves? We may develop a critical spirit? This may all be true, but Sunday we are going to learn about the dangers of judging others from Romans 2:1-11. More importantly, we are going to see God's measure for judging and why He delays judgment. I think we will leave less judgmental and more thankful to God. That is my big prayer for us all on this ides of March!

Imagine you're an artist! You create a beautiful masterpiece and decide to share it with some new people so they can enjoy it as well. The hope is that a friendship would begin based on a mutual love of fellowship and beauty. Not only do your new acquaintances not appreciate your art, but they also want nothing to do with you. Instead of wanting to get to know you more, the new acquaintances think they can do better. They start by defacing your masterpiece. Then they take some rocks and your art supplies and decide to make their own art. Their art is inferior and distorts the original. Despite their grotesque art, they all gather to start celebrating it. As they continue to assemble more art, it gets more and more profane. What should you do next? Would you like to know what God did when He created the universe and pursued us human beings who then rejected Him? Come this Sunday to hear Pastor Jason explain God's response from Romans 1:18-32.

Have you ever been ashamed of the gospel? I can recall several times in my life when I have shared the Good News of Jesus Christ that I tried listening to myself as I talked and thought that people must think I am crazy. I am describing my belief that I am placing my whole life on the fact that a poor Jewish carpenter was crucified on a Roman Cross nearly 2000 years ago and rose from the grave because I believe He is the Son of God come in the flesh to die for my sins. As I hear myself, I realize that as crazy as that may sound, I believe it to be 100% true and have found time and time again Christ confirming my faith in him. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation! This is nothing to be ashamed of but is the glorious and liberating truth we find in Romans 1:16-17!

All the snow we have had this winter reminds me of the snow we used to receive here in Ontario when I was a kid. Wow! It takes a lot for us to cancel our worship services, but we were concerned about your safety this past Sunday, so we made the hard decision to cancel our worship service. What made it more difficult was that we were going to have baptisms and child dedications on Sunday. But sometimes God delays events for His grand purposes. Maybe God was doing something in your life or your family when you were stuck at home? Do you know what that is? We would love to hear these God stories. Just like the Apostle Paul being delayed in coming to Rome, our delay on these baptisms, child dedications and Pastor Kyle preaching Romans 1:8-15, we will someday know what God was doing to bring glory to Himself on Snow Family Day Sunday 2025!

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one book of the Bible, what would it be? This would be a hard choice. My choice would be the Letter to the Romans because it teaches me so much about God no matter how many times I have read it. We start this Sunday studying Romans and may God use it mightily in our lives to transform us to become more like Christ. What Book of the Bible would you want if you were stranded on a deserted island? Let me know and why at info@templebaptistchurch.ca

If you knew someone was coming to replace you, how would you prepare for them? What needs would you make sure you met for them so they would get off to a good start in their new role? How would you get your co-workers and friends ready? It has been said that there is no success without good succession. No wonder some experts suggest that you should start preparing for your successor the moment you begin a new job so that you can reverse engineer what would be a good handoff. Do you pray and prepare for your successor? These are some of the questions we will be wrestling with as we conclude our study of Titus with Titus 3:12-15 this Sunday. It will be Groundhog Day! Let's not repeat the mistake of not being ready to hand-off our jobs and ministries to those faithfully coming behind us.

Why did Jesus save you? There are a lot of reasons God saved you! Before I focus on why God saved you, let's focus on some common misconceptions why God didn't save you. God didn't save because He needs you. The triune God is sufficient unto Himself. God didn't need to create us human beings because He needed our love or our service or our praise. God also didn't save us because He saw that we would be good enough to choose Him. So why did God save us? Last week we learned from Titus 2:14 that God is saving and redeeming a people for Himself. God wants, but does not need, a community for Himself. This week from Titus 3, we are going to find out another reason why God saved us - not because of our good works, but to do good works. How did He save us and is continuing to save us?

As we begin this new year, our focus is to watch your life and doctrine closely. Who discipled you in the ways of the Lord? As I reflect on my life, I am thankful for the many disciplers in my life. Who discipled you? I would love for you to email me at info@templebaptistchurch.ca and let me know who discipled you and how. Also, who are you discipling? This will be the focus as we study Titus 2 this Sunday.

As we begin this new year, our focus is to watch your life and doctrine closely. What do you look for in a church leader? Do you look for one who loves Jesus? Who has integrity and is faithful in all areas of life? Who leads their home in the ways of Jesus? Who cares for you individually? Who sees the big picture for the church? Who teaches the Bible well? This Sunday, we are going to learn what to look for in a church leader from Titus 1:5-16. We don't believe that "everything rises or falls on leadership." Everything rises and falls on Christ. Church leaders first lead by example as they follow Christ. As the late pastor of Grandview Church in Kitchener Steve Baxter taught, “Your church will look like your elders.” This is why we need you to pray for our current leaders and ask God to raise up more. After studying Titus 1, if you know of a godly man 18 years or older who meets the qualifications of an elder, please let me know. In fact, I would love to hear from you about what you look for in a church leader as well as any names you would like to nominate for Elders at info@templebaptistchurch.ca. I am thankful for the leaders God has given our church. If you are also, please let them know.

As we begin this new year, our focus is to watch your life and doctrine closely. This is a call to be vigilant because the unholy trinity (the world, the flesh and the devil) would love for us to fall into sin or fall for false teaching. This is why we are starting a brief series in the Book of Titus followed by a study in the Book of Romans. Titus is a book that encourages us to place our hope for eternal life in Jesus Christ. Are you placing your hope in Jesus Christ? You can show it by watching your life and doctrine closely.

I hope you had a great Christmas. As we conclude 2024 with the year of living wisely, we end with a family service. I can't think of a better way to end the year as a whole church family, than taking time to celebrate God's greatness. There will be times of singing, a couple of God stories, the preaching of God's Word from Pastor Kyle, and a child dedication. May this coming year be one where we lean hard on and follow the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas! Do you know that I am from New Brunswick? I am a Maritimer! Do you know why Maritimers are wiser? This is because wise men come from the east! :) (By the way, you can use that joke anytime you come from a place or country further to the east.) Of course, “wise men” is another name for Magi - those who followed the star to Bethlehem to see Jesus - most likely by the time they arrived, Jesus was a toddler. This Sunday, we continue with our 2024 theme of live wisely. There is nothing more wise than following and worshipping Jesus. This is why I would also encourage you to come to our Christmas Eve service at 6 PM to worship Jesus once again.

How often do you remember your Creator? As we wrap up our series in Ecclesiastes, Pastor Kyle will be teaching us from Ecclesiastes 11-12 that the time is right now to remember our Creator God, and to honour Him in everything we do before we get old and serving Him gets harder due to physical limitations. Honouring Him means to fear and obey Him. Living in light of knowing that we will meet our Maker will help us live a life for Him. How are you remembering your Creator today?

One of the sermons and books that has affected many is entitled Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. Have you wasted your life on things that won't last? What if you were given 2 billion, 207 million, 520,000? God did and maybe more! if you live to age 70, God will have given 2 billion, 207 million and 520,000 seconds. Those of you older than age 70 have received more. What have you done with those seconds? How have you spent them? Wisely? Have those seconds been invested in eternal things? For the remaining seconds God gives you on the planet, Ecclesiastes 10 can guide you.

What would you do if you were asked to work in the Prime Minister's office? Would you take the job? If something shady or something that was against your values was being promoted at the highest levels, would you quit? This week from Ecclesiastes 8, we will be encouraged not to leave those in authority over us. Now most of us, if not any of us, will work in the PMO, but there are bosses and teachers we have that we disagree with. We may be tempted to leave them. What if instead of quitting, you stay and bring more of God's light to the darkness? What if you display a joy in your work that is contagious and points others to God? God may have placed you in that role for such a time as this.

Sometimes our financial institutions will ask us about our net worth. Our net worth is based on the total costs of our assets (e.g. our investments, houses and vehicles) less the amount of debt we have. Our net worth may be important to our bank, but there are a lot of things more valuable in life. One of those things is our reputation. How much is your reputation worth to you? Losing money is not the end of the world. In fact, many can bounce back from such a loss. However, losing your reputation, now that is one of the hardest things in the world to gain back. This is what we will find out and more from Ecclesiastes 7

I recall hearing about a man being offered a position, but when he learned how meager the salary was, he cheekily replied, “After looking at the package, I just have this little problem … I have this nasty habit of eating to survive.” Though his response was not appropriate, it serves as a reminder that much of our work goes to purchasing food and other goods that are here today and gone tomorrow. I won't get more visual than that. This is what we will be reminded of in Ecclesiastes 6 as Pastor Steve preaches.

Have you ever made a vow to God beyond your wedding vows? Maybe you made a promise to God that if He did something for you, you would do something for Him? This week from Ecclesiastes 5 we are going to learn that God doesn't make bargains and if we make a vow to Him, we better keep it. This is why we should be very cautious to making vows to God. In fact, this aligns with how we are to approach God. We are to let our words be few. We don't need to babble on. God knows what we need before we ask, so simply ask Him.

How are you using the power God gave you? You may not feel very powerful, but God has given each of us a limited amount of influence, authority and power over others. We can use this either to harm or help others. This is what we discover as we study Ecclesiastes 4.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) What season are you in? And no, I am not talking about the beautiful autumn season we have had. I am talking about the stages and circumstances of life. Do you realize that God is sovereign over all your life and makes each season, especially the difficult ones, beautiful in its time? Maybe you are going through a hard time? God will make that beautiful in its time. This week we continue our series in Ecclesiastes and this time in Ecclesiastes 3. Remember our time is short!

Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful to God for? Your family? Your health? Your salvation through Christ? What about your work? Most of us do not see the blessing that work is until we aren't able to work. Earlier this year, Lori and I met a newly retired airline pilot. He had been retired for only a few months, but you could tell he was not happy. He had lots of money but grumbled that the airline made him stop working due to his age. This week Pastor Kyle will show us from Ecclesiastes 2, how when we find our fulfillment in God, we can enjoy our work and a lot of other pursuits as gifts from Him.

This Sunday we begin a new series studying the Book of Ecclesiastes entitled “For Our Time is Short.” Ecclesiastes is an odd book, even depressing at first reading, but only if you don't understand its meaning. Written by the wisest man (other than Jesus) to ever live, Solomon was so fully resourced that he was able to explore almost every possibility for happiness and found these pursuits lacking. He then reports on it and says that "everything under the sun is meaningless.” Is that how you feel when you pursue the things of this earth? Life is frustratingly difficult. At the end of the book, Solomon points us to God. He reminds us that since our life is but a vapour, the only hope is pursuing God. I am excited to see what God will do in our lives with this series.

When I was younger, I played a lot of sports. I loved sports, but one of the things I hated most was sitting on the bench. I couldn't wait to get out there and play. It is a great feeling when your name or number gets called and you get to see action. Do you know that God is calling your name? Maybe you have been on the bench, sidelines or even in the stands watching others? It is time to get out there and use (or continue to use) your spiritual gifts. This Sunday we are going to unpack 1 Peter 4:10-11 as a call to action to use our spiritual gifts. Are you ready?

“Well done, good and faithful servant!” Are these the words you are hoping to hear when you see Jesus? If so, one of the ways to hear those words is to depend upon the Holy Spirit and use your serving spiritual gift. Most of us have at least one serving gift. Those serving gifts are the gifts of helps, administration, giving, mercy or faith. This Sunday we will unpack what those gifts are, but for those of you who have an understanding of these gifts, do you have one of them? If so, are you using them? If not, why not? It may help to see how they connect to others using their gifts to build up the church.

Words are some of the most powerful things in the universe. God even used words to create the universe when He said in Genesis 1:3, “Let there be light,” and there was light. No wonder that God gave His church special abilities to speak words into people's lives. These spiritual gifts include teaching, encouragement, and exhortation. Think about your life. There are times you need to be encouraged when downcast, corrected when wrong, taught when ignorant and motivated when apathetic. Words are so important to the Christian life that one doesn't become a Christian without them. Romans 10 declares that in order for people to believe in Jesus they must first hear about Him and this is predicated by somebody telling them. The role of evangelist is still needed in our lives. And this is why spiritual gifts that involve speaking or communication are crucial to our spiritual growth. If you want to read ahead for what we are studying this Sunday, check out 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 and Romans 12:6-8. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and whether you have been given a speaking gift.

For many of you, this may be welcome back after a busy summer! We thought it would be a good idea to familiarize you with our various ministries kicking off this fall season, so grab some food provided, and please plan on checking out the ministries after the Sunday morning service. As far as what we will be studying this Sunday, our focus will be on what some have called the sign gifts. Signs are important because they point to a greater person or place. Spiritual gifts that are sign gifts are to point us to Jesus and help us find our place in the body of Christ where we cooperate and contribute with the Holy Spirit to build up the church. I encourage you to prayerfully read 1 Corinthians 12:8-11; 14:1-40 to better acquaint yourselves with these sign gifts. And may God use this series on spiritual gifts as a pivotal moment in our lives to serve Him in greater ways!

Happy Labour Day weekend! I hope you have had a great summer! This Sunday we launch a long-awaited series on spiritual gifts entitled Spirit-Built! We hope every believer will discover their spiritual gift and use them to build up the church for God's glory. Pastor Aaron will be preaching on Sunday through 1 Corinthians 12:4-7. Please read this passage ahead of time and come with your questions as you hear him preach God's Word.

I recently read about a man in a church that my brother-in-law pastors, who shows up every Sunday and walks into the church auditorium. What does he pray for? Five things: Conviction. He prays that God uses the Word in a way that brings conviction to the hearts of people. Brokenness. He prays that having been convicted, people would experience a form of brokenness and godly sorrow over their sin. Repentance. Having been convicted and broken, he prays it leads people to life change as they turn away from sin and look to God. Reconciliation. Having turned their hearts to the Lord, he prays that people would experience two forms of reconciliation. First, a reconciliation between God and them. Secondly, a reconciliation between people and people. Joy. Ultimately, once people act on what they hear and turn their hearts to the Lord, he prays for the fullness of God's joy to fill them. What if we started to pray like that man for ourselves and others each Sunday? If you came to the Prayer Encounter at Shiloh this past Wednesday, we learned about how to pray using the ancient prayer book of God's People - the Psalms. We prayed for the next generation of kids, youth and young adults at TBC. And we learned to pray for conviction, brokenness, repentance, reconciliation and joy. This Sunday, we conclude our series on cultivating the heart with the emphasis on seeking one thing. We are to seek the Lord. Prayer is one of the chief ways we seek the Lord. Beloved, seek Jesus with all your heart. Make prayer a priority in your life.

What are you looking at? It is a crucial question because our eyes are connected to our heart. You might think I need an anatomy lesson, and I am confusing the mind with the heart. However, in the Bible it is your heart (the all-encompassing term for the inner person) that is connected to the eyes. This is what we will find out and explore further as Pastor Jason leads us through Jesus' teaching from Matthew 6:19-24. Recall that our eyes are the window to our soul, so let's keep our eyes on Jesus.

When our missions team was in Czechia this summer to assist our missionary Christina Mayer, I was impressed with how the Czech people grow fruit and vegetables everywhere. Many of the trees throughout their cities bear fresh edible fruit, which are available for any passersby to eat. Czechia is flourishing in so many ways - economically, biologically, and even growing spiritually. One of the highlights of the trip for Michael Duguay, my son Josiah and myself, was to get to know a Czech family who were so hospitable. This family took the whole team to their house in the country where they grow all sorts of fruits and vegetables and raise chickens. I picked a fresh peach off one of their trees and it was the tastiest and juiciest peach I have ever had in my life. When I turned over the peach, I noticed a few bad spots on the fruit. This was a reminder that from first appearances and even tastes, fruit can look wonderful to eat. However, we need to inspect the fruit before consuming. This is also true in the spiritual realm. Our hearts are bearing fruit. Pastor Jason will remind us from Galatians 5:16-25 and Matthew 15:19-21, to inspect the fruit of our hearts so that they glorify God.

How is your heart? Do you know? Most people suffer from heart attacks because they are unaware of a blockage or high cholesterol or a defect. As much as we care about your physical heart here at TBC, we care first and foremost about your spiritual heart. This is why we are starting a 4-week series on the heart led by Pastor Jason. This Sunday we will be learning about the heart from Proverbs 4:23. May God use this series to heal our broken hearts and align them with His!

How are we going to support and carry on the mission of Jesus Christ? This week as we wrap-up our study in 1 Corinthians, we are going to find out how to support and carry on the mission of Jesus Christ from 1 Corinthians 16:5-24. I believe that there will be enough action points that God will impress upon you to do at least one of them.

You are in for a real treat this Sunday as Steve Adams (the former Lead Pastor at Forward Church) will be preaching. Steve has made a big impact for the Kingdom of God. He is a close friend of Temple and helped us as our consultant a few years ago. We are reaping the benefits of his sage advice. My only regret is I won't get to hear Steve live when he preaches as I will be preaching myself in Czechia. Please pray for Steve, our services, and the Czechia Team to bear much fruit for God's Kingdom.

Wayne Baxter continues on in our series, Holy Together in the Gospel, a study in 1 Corinthians, preaching from 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 and then leading in a time of celebrating communion.

Have you ever wondered why I sit up at the front in the church service? It isn't because I think I'm important or more spiritual. (I actually don't like the spotlight and know I am desperately wicked without Christ.) It isn't just because I have to go on stage and do not want you to waste your time waiting for me to walk from the back of the auditorium to preach. I sit up at the front because I don't want to be distracted and I suffer from a little bit of undiagnosed ADHD. I tend to people watch. How about you? Distractions in worship services can be a problem. At least, God thinks so according to 1 Corinthians 14. He wants our worship to be orderly. This is why when we use our spiritual gifts in the context of worship, we are to do so with order as we will discover this Sunday.

Do you know your spiritual gift? Did you know you have a gift from God to be used to build up others in the church? More importantly, do you know that God has given you His Spirit and that we are meant to work together to all use our spiritual gifts? This Sunday, we will be studying 1 Corinthians 12. It is long overdue. I hope we can not only come away with a common script on spiritual gifts, but also know and use our spiritual gifts for God's glory.

Long before Remembrance Day was instituted, Jesus established a remembrance of His death. This remembrance wasn't optional - it is a command (aka ordinance) that we are to observe regularly until Jesus comes back. Why remember? We never want to forget what Christ has done for us by giving up HIs body and shedding His blood for our sins. This is something we do together publicly! Come this Sunday and participate in Communion as we study 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.

Have you ever seen the Amish and Mennonite women wear a head covering and wondered why they are doing so? Have you ever wondered what the Bible says about how men and women are to interact with each other? Do they have distinct roles? Who is supposed to lead? This Sunday, we hope to answer these questions from 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 and discover God's created order as evidenced most often when we gather together to worship.

Happy Mother's Day! We thank our mothers for not only giving us life but helping us throughout life and teaching us about life. One of the benefits that parents provide is their example. We can learn from their good examples and their bad examples. This is also true from God's people. We can learn from their good and bad examples as we will discover from 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 this Sunday. If your mother is still alive, seek ways to honour her this weekend and throughout the year! I thank God for my mother and her godly example!