Consider this

Have you ever experienced “Jet lag”? I have, once, on a trip to Israel . Our plane left Toronto at 6 am and, after 14 hours in the air, we landed just outside Tel Aviv at around 8 am their time. I had not slept on the plane (I did not want to miss anything) and so when we got on the tour bus that morning I was tired! One of my most vivid memories of that first day is simply trying to force my eyes open. As the bus rocked slowly back and forth down the road, the nice, warm sun shone in the window. To make matters worse, my friend Bill was sound asleep and snoring loudly. The first day of that trip was a bit of a blur for a while. It is hard to stay awake and alert when everything around you is encouraging you to relax and sleep through the important stuff. Unfortunately, I sometimes find myself going through life as if I am sitting on that bus. I am on the journey of a lifetime and yet I can hardly stay awake. My day...

Old things can be valuable (no, I am not just saying that because I am starting to “get up there”). Take, for example, the old idea of “God’s grace”. By definition, “Grace” is “unmerited favor” or “unearned kindness” and it is one of the words that the New Testament writers frequently use when describing God. John 1:16 tells us that, “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another”. A short list of those blessings would include things like forgiveness, salvation, new life, repentance, God’s love and Christ himself. In various scriptures, those concepts are tied to the word “grace”. Recovering that old concept of “God’s grace” changes how we see him. Our God is not out to get us, or exclude us. In fact, God’s gracious disposition is one of the best blessings that we have. Romans 8:31 says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The “if” in that sentence could be translated “beca...