​FUNERAL HOME FINDS NEW LIFE AS SANCTUARY MINISTRY CENTER!
 
Ashburnham –The former funeral home at 17 Main Street is finding new life with three organizations that share space: Sanctuary, City on a Hill Arts, and the Christian Healing Center of New England.
 
Sanctuary, a church plant that was birthed in 2013, now gathers each week on Sunday for morning worship as well as Bible studies and prayer gatherings mid-week. They had previously been renting the Ashby Elementary School, but 6 years of setting up and breaking down week after week was wearing thin.  When presented with the opportunity to breathe life into the funeral home, they jumped at the chance.
 
City on a Hill Arts, an off-shoot of Sanctuary, produces two major works per year.  This November they are thrilled to present Seven, a documentary play highlighting the real lives of women who overcame incredible odds to work for justice in their respective countries.  The chapel within the former funeral home will be transformed into an intimate performance space asSeventakes the stage November 8 and 9.
 
The Christian Healing Center, formerly housed upstairs at 56 Main Street, offers healing prayer for various concerns: physical, emotional and spiritual. In addition they offer training classes for those that desire to learn the intricacies of healing prayer.  They will be hosting an open house at their new location on Saturday, November 2ndfrom 10-12.
 
All three organizations welcome you to find out more by calling their new location at (978) 252-5733.

It is our heart to bless our community - those that are within our church family, and those that are part of our surrounding towns.  It is that mission that sparked the desire to help coordinate the Love in Motion Benefit Concert.  Not only are we going to help support our community by raising funds, money, and awareness for the Ashby Food Pantry and those they serve, we will be able to support a family in need.  Theirs is a great need - and not everyone is aware of the journey they have been on these past five months.  Read below a message from their daughter, Erin, and join us this Friday as we put Love in Motion.

November 2, 2013. The day the call came...
  Roland had been volunteering in town hanging a basketball hoop when the ladder slipped and he suffered a serious fall. Life flight was en route to take him to Worcester. 
  It took time to evaluate the injuries as the family gathered by his side. Two broken wrists, a shattered jaw, a broken nose, and several cracks in his skull.
   Multiple surgeries followed over the next few days to set the wrists and stabilize the jaw. Then home after a week, to recover.
   The prognosis was for 6-8 weeks with a cast on one arm, external braces and bars on the other, and wires on the jaw. Time would tell how much movement in the hands would be recovered.
   Complications with blood clots put Roland back in the hospital for further monitoring. Home again a week later, with daily check ups. 
  Susan, Roland's wife, was on around-the-clock nursing duty since the time if the accident.  Doctors followed his progress closely to ensure a good recovery. 
  Three months later, Roland has begun therapy with some use of his hands and is looking at further surgery to help his jaw. The road is long, and we have come far. 
  But there is still farther to go. 
  Beyond the physical recovery and the emotional toll on the family there had been added financial stress.
  Roland was unemployed at the time of the accident, despite two years of diligent job searching. 
  Medical insurance was approved but not active yet. Bills were coming in before Roland was even settled at home. 
   BUT...family and friends stepped up, and the Roland Barrette Care Fund was established to help with mounting costs. The love and help has been coming in. 
   And our road has been made a little smoother. THANK YOU to all who have given their time, help, and prayers. 
   As we face the rest of this road, you are making it easier. 
Many sincere thanks from the Barrette Family

Lately I have been concerned and confronted with the rise in suicides, both attempted and successful.  A dear friend of mine lost both her daughter-in-law and son to suicide within weeks of each other.  Within my church family, there have been two suicide attempts in as many months.  Then in the recent public eye is the suicide death of Rick Warren’s son.

So much desperation, so much darkness, so much hopelessness.  Hurting people.  And it is too easy to begin to find the reasons for this apparent increase in these occurrences.  I, myself, have been railing against the lack of true relationships, the chasm that has been created due to the increase of technology, and the lack of faith in God.  Yet, all this amounts to is pointing a finger at the many problems without offering a solution, not to mention the risk of simplifying a complex problem into something we can handle mentally.

So where do we start?  By raising hope.  In the Bible, the followers of Jesus knew desperation and hopelessness immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus.  In Luke’s gospel (Luke 24: 13-35), two followers have an encounter on their way to Emmaus that changes their despair into delight.  We can learn from them in times of deep darkness.

1.  First, know Jesus. This goes beyond what we are able to see in the natural.  The two followers knew only limitedly because they had faith in only what they were able to see.  They believed that the body of Jesus was missing, but not that He was raised from the dead.  Once their eyes were opened, they believed.  “Faith is the substance of what we hope for, the evidence of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

2.  Get the Word into Your heart.  This is where the fire is kindled constantly, and the only true way to know who God is.  His character, his plans and purposes, are all revealed in the Word of God.  Spend time deepening your understanding of God, through personal devotions, a weekly service, and through spending time with others that are sharing in this journey, too.  Hope comes from knowing that God has a plan and a purpose for our lives, even though our circumstances may look differently at the moment.

3.  Allow Him to walk with you through your circumstances.  Jesus accompanied them along the way through their disappointments, and it was His companionship that brought them from despair to delight.  Although Jesus cannot be with us physically, He has sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter, our advocate.  There is no better “instant messaging” than time spent in prayer and communion with God.

4.  Finally, invite Him into your home, and your heart.  It was in the breaking of bread, in the intimate moments, where Jesus was revealed to them.  It starts with having a personal relationship with Jesus.  Our homes and families are where this relationship is lived out in honesty.  No matter what we may appear like in public, the reality is what happens in the privacy of our homes. 

We all need hope.  No one is immune.  And Jesus is the answer.  “And his name will be the hope of all the world.”  (Matthew 12: 21)

Sure, we're to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul.  Probably easier than part 2: Love your neighbor as yourself.  Jesus told us that all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.  That would mean that the Bible that Jesus read, the complete Old Testament, the body of Hebrew scriptures, hangs on these two commandments.  That, without love, as Paul states, we are a clanging cymbal.

What makes a difference is the love that we reveal to the lovable and unlovable alike.  We want our lives to be meaningful; when we leave this earthly realm, what we leave behind will have lasting significance.  Sometimes it might be possible to feel like Macbeth:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.


But it doesn't have to be this way.  We are told to lay treasure up in heaven, where it can not be destroyed.  The only way we can do that is to invest in things of eternal merit.  It starts with loving our neighbor.  Even as Jesus taught: 'what you have done for the least of these, you have done for me."

Here are some guidelines to help you in reaching out and loving on your neighbor:
1.  Our love is INDIVIDUAL:  Paul teaches us in 1 Cor 12 that "there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord."  Therefore, we should not try to copy cat how other people love on their neighbor.  We have our own gifts, and as the Body of Christ, we need to operate in our gifts, and not try to be someone else.  God has already given you the talent and passion to love as He's called you to love.
2.  Love each person as if they are Christ.  As Francis Chan challenges in his book, Crazy Love, "How would your life change if you thought of each person that you come in contact with as Christ?"  This is easier said than done, but we can do ALL things through the One who gives us strength.
3.  Do everything motivated by LOVE:  Each act of kindness, mercy and love can change a life and the lives of others in response.  When we drop a pebble into the pond, we can not control the ripples.  We are in control of the pebble.  Whether we choose to drop the pebble of love is up to us.

Entire lives can change if genuine Christians are obedient to what Christ taught:  love your neighbor as yourself.  This is the gospel that we are called to live.

If we understand that God loves us sacrificially, unconditionally, and completely, isn't that how we should return that love?  Jesus tells us that we are to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls and minds.  In response to the abundant love of the Lord, we, too, should return that love sacrificially, unconditionally, and completely.

I have been challenged by the idea of loving God completely.  When I read passages, such as Psalm 63: 1-5, I am inspired to love more - to deepen my relationship with God.  The scripture reads:
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.  I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.  Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.  I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.  I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

I confess that I don't always feel that way in my relationship with God.  Too many times the frenetic pace of this life takes over, and I am consumed by the little things that must be accomplished, rather than just resting in the presence of the Lord.  In my mind and in my heart I know that I love Him, but am I truly spending time with Him?  Do I "thirst" for Him?  The answer is not always "yes." 

When you think of being "in love," what does that bring to mind?  The desire to be with the one you love?  Unending phone conversations about nothing?  Your thoughts constantly consumed with the object of your affection?  Well, if we are in love with Jesus, should we not behave the same way?  In his Confessions, Augustine wrote, "You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness.  You were resplendent, you put to flight my blindness.  You were fragrant, and I drew my breath and now pant after you.  I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you.  You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours."  You might think he was writing a Shakespearean sonnet, but this passage is written to God.

Jesus implores us to be either hot or cold, not lukewarm.  May God ignite a fire that burns within that can not be snuffed out or slowly forgotten during the demands of the day.  As with any worthwhile relationship, spend time today in deepening the love relationship you have with God.  Rest in His presence, share your heart, and listen to His.  Fall in love again with the Lover of your soul.