September 2025

I will not forsake my Lord

Lately I have been encouraging our church members or visitors to remove the blinders that can limit our ability to know God in a fuller way. You know that we only see 10% of an iceberg in the water. The same goes with our acceptance, relationship, and reception of God’s immensity of love, guidance, and protection for us, His creation. We only see a portion of what God has for us. Part of removing blinders is in making the Lord the focus of our lives. I pray this short writing will help to enrich you in your journey through life. I will not forsake my Lord.

I will. It seems like a pretty simple action for acting or committing ourselves to achieve a duty. I will (fill in the blank). In seeing a different clarification for the word will it means, expressing determination, insistence, persistence, and willfulness.

Not forsake is another wording clarification for building on our relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ. Forsake means to abandon, renounce, or turn away from someone or something. Jesus on the cross cried out to his father. Why have you forsaken me. In using the word ‘‘not’ before ‘forsaking’ it shows the action to be taken. My Lord. The definition I am using for Lord is, a ruler, or preeminence of whom or what our service, actions, and focus are committed to. Anything can and does serve as our lord as it is used or perceived to meet our needs.

In bringing these six words together the goal is to bring more attention to our Living King Jesus Christ. From Adam and Eve, to Israel, to current times, we as humanity are always looking for a better way to live and feel. The selfishness of me, me, me, abounds in hearts and minds ad infinitum. We should not forsake our true Lord.

I will, expresses our determination, insistence, persistence, and willfulness to; Not forsake abandon, renounce, or turn away from; My Lord Jesus Christ.

In sharing from John 10:7-10, “So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

This life that Jesus promised is a life of hope, balance, and sanity. He came that we may have life (hope, balance, & sanity) and have it abundantly. We get so overloaded with freedom of choice and making our selections from the catalogue of the world that sometimes all of us can forsake God’s immensity in His love, guidance, and protection for us His creation.

Blessings to all, Pastor John

My hope as a Pastor is to intrigue and challenge Christians. This can only be done with perspectives of God that allow us to see God with a wider insight on His wondrous being. So often we fall into the simplification of saying that we are a Christian, but just use these words to justify or elevate ourselves above others in different scenarios.

Pentecost means 50 days. Easter occurred 50 days before Pentecost. Easter is the annual celebration of the Passover, and Pentecost is Israel’s annual celebration of the Shavuot.  Shavuot was the time when Israel would bring the offering of the first harvest to Jerusalem. The Shavuot also was the time when Israel would thank God for the Torah (law & covenant) given by Moses from God on Mt. Sinai.

The wind of Pentecost is the occurrence in Acts 2, that creates a type of curiosity in many Christians. The disciples who after Jesus final ascension are waiting in Jerusalem as Jesus told them to, are in the midst of something that they were not expecting. Acts 2:2 “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.”

In the Ezekial 37:9, “Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”. In simple terms I want to intrigue and challenge you.

Ezekial was a prophet of God sent to give hope to Israel who was in exile. They again had been taken hostage and were separated from all of their customary beliefs. Their relationship with God was non-existent and with no God there is no hope. Ezekial in his vision of the valley of dry bones cries out to Israel, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”. This is the Wind of Pentecost.

The celebration of the Shavuot that was the time when Israel would thank God for the Torah (law & covenant) given by Moses from God on Mt. Sinai was the time for delivery of the New Covenant through God’s Holy Spirit that was promised in the Old Testament, fulfilled by Jesus and promised by Him for the disciples to receive while they waited for the promise in John 14:16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

There is so much more that God is. This is just a little something that I hope will help break you out of being a Christian as boring. My favorite verse in the Bible is Acts 17:28, for” ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Enterprise Community Congregational Church is here for a reason. The reason is for people to know and enjoy just how awesome God is and be able to carry that within our hearts knowing that, ‘In all things He is with us’.

Come and visit or give me a call, Pastor John Chamberlain 

Personal: (503) 949-2744, Pastorjohnsmail@gmail.com 

         ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’  

I was thinking about the church blog and the word Spring jumped into my mind. Spring means several different things to me. Spring can be a coiled metal piece meant to produce support for comfort based on the pressure applied. Spring can mean an offshoot of a river or stream. Spring can also mean an action of a person responding to something taking place of joy or imposing a threat. What does Spring mean to you?

Merriam- Webster says that Spring is a source of supply, a source of water distributing from the ground, an ultimate source of action or motion, a time or season of growth or development, an elastic body or device that recovers its original shape when released after being distorted, the act or an instance of leaping up or, resilience, energy, and bounce. That is much more descriptive than my simple thoughts.

In a biblical context, "spring" can symbolize renewal, rebirth, and the demonstration of God's promises. It is most often associated with the beginning of the harvest season and new life. In the New Testament, "Spring", as a spring of water", is used in a symbolic way.

In John 4:14, Jesus shares, "But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." What a promise. Spring is used to represent the Holy Spirit's indwelling power and gives me a promise of refreshment and renewal. This is Jesus’ promise for those who accept Him as the Son of God. 

On May 4,2025 will mean that my wife Jenni and I have been part of Enterprise Community Congregational Church for two years. I am happy that God is working in the body at ECCC which lets Him put more Spring into who we are through His Holy Spirit.

 As the song says, “ya’ ain’t what ya used to be”.  What an awesome experience it is to watch ECCC Spring forward through the water of our living God welling up within the body of His church and making each of us not what we used to be.

Come and check it out, seeing is believing,

Pastor John

Welcome to the Big Brown Church, I’m glad that you are checking us out. I find myself standing in the midst of living life. This is a daily event and this life that is all mine always goes on. Every day things happen. Every day the majority of events in this world are out of my control. With that reality, standing still, taking a breath, and saying, “Hmm”, is ok. Change, challenge, and choice is another continuum similar to life. It is also all mine, and just like life, it is given to me absolutely free.

Is life just a spectator sport? I get to watch things happen in front of me. I could just sit back and comment on the program, the performances, and the words that are happening and used. I can literally or figuratively applaud for all the things I agree with. I can share my approval with myself or others of what I believe is true. I could also stand from my recliner and boo at all the things that are wrong and even protest at the courthouse (again in my opinion).

To simplify my life and share my opinion of a way to deal with change, challenge, and choice. I find that to make easier, I can share things from God’s word. Mark 12:30-31, Jesus shares, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. “

We at ECCC are just people in Wallowa county. I, the Pastor, am blessed to be part of who we are and who we as a family are becoming through our Savior Jesus Christ. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’, is the key to Enterprise Community Congregational Church. None of us is perfect and none of us have all of the answers to living life. Living is easier when we have a family of fellow followers to walk with us as we wrestle with life. Change is challenging and requires us to make choices. We are all in this together. With God being our creator and creating each one of us to be who we are, feel free to come and join us or give me a call.

In needing His strength always,

Pastor John Chamberlain