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Kids like to test their balance. Whether it is walking on a fence, a sidewalk curb or a “Balance beam” in a gym, there is something about the challenge of seeing how far we can go without falling off. “Balance” is a key idea when we are grown too. He are some ideas about how to “keep your balance” in the New Year. First, we need to look back. Past successes and failures have a lot to teach us if we would just take the time to remember and think about them. God’s people, Israel, were very concerned about where they had come from and what they had learned. For example, when God stopped the water so that his people could cross the Jordan River, they were commanded to take twelve stones from the river and pile them up on the other shore. The Bible then says, “In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord” (Joshua 4:6-7). God did not want them to forget how he had t

Words can lose their meaning over time. This can happen because of neglect (we simply do not use the word enough to recall what it means), through misuse (connecting an incorrect meaning to the word) or by reduction (taking a word that means a very broad range of things and reducing it to one meaning). I believe that “repent” is one of those “reduced” words. Most of us know that to repent means to “turn around”, or (more fully) to make “a complete alteration of the basic motivation and direction of one’s life”. Unfortunately, though, these days “repent” has come to be a threat. It is a word that is most often (and, sometimes, is only) heard in the messages of the so called “hellfire and brimstone” preachers. It is a word that has become tied to other words like “hell”, “damnation” and “judgment”. What if we heard it differently though? What if it was not a threat but rather an invitation? That would make a lot more sense in verses like Acts 3:19 which says, “Repent, then, and turn to G

For forty days and forty nights the rain just kept coming. The water kept rising until there was nothing but water to be seen. According to Genesis, Noah and his family were on the ark for over a year (Genesis 7:11 and 8:13-14). Now, we know how this story ends even before we start reading it, but what would it be like to be Noah? He had no idea what was going to happen next. All he knew was that the rain kept coming. Have you ever felt like that? Like “the rain just keeps coming” and there is no end in sight. Worse than that though, is the knowledge that, even when it does end, everything will be different. The uncertainty that comes with not knowing how things will end is sometimes worse than the storm itself. I do not know what things are like in your life right now. I hope that the skies are blue, that the sun is shining and that everything is great. For many people though, the dark rain clouds are just beginning to appear on the horizo

It seems like she was always there. My Grandma, Annie Hannan, has been part of my life as long as I can remember. When we were going up, Grandma and Grandpa lived only a few short blocks away from us and so we saw them almost every day. We had sleepovers. We went for walks. We went out for supper together. Every summer, we would go camping with them, mostly at Buffalo Pound Provincial Park. Growing up Grandma was always a part of my life. Then, when I got married and had kids, she became part of their lives too. Visits to see Grandma often meant “Orange floats” and games of Crokinole. In later years, we often talked on the phone and she always wanted to know how Sara and the girls were doing. She had been in and out of the hospital frequently over the past few months, so, considering that she was ninety-one years old, it was not hard to guess that the end may be near. Still it was a shock when my mom called last Thursday to say that “Granny” (as her great-grandchildren call

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains” (Colossians 4:2-3). On the surface, those two verses likely do not look all that interesting or important. Sure there is a good lesson in there about the nature and attitude of prayer (words like “devoted… watchful and thankful” give some good instruction in that regard), but it is the last portion of the quote that should inspire us. Paul most likely wrote this letter while he was under house arrest in the city of Rome (Acts 28:16-31). His future was uncertain and his life was in the balance. He may have been chained to his prison guard twenty four hours per day. If not, he certainly had someone watching over him constantly. His outlook was bleak and there seemed no reason to be optimistic or to look for a good outcome. In the midst of these circumstances, Paul asks his brothers and sis

Last week, I read an article about how courts are going away from eyewitness testimony because it is so inaccurate. In fact, the article claimed that most eyewitness testimony is based on what people think they saw rather than on what really happened and that, when studied, the details are very often fabricated. To test this theory, I asked the congregation to look at a picture of a group of men. I left the PowerPoint slide up for approximately five seconds and then asked a series of questions like, “How many people in that picture were wearing red shirts?” “How many people were wearing glasses?” Not surprisingly, I heard all kinds of answers. Some people were right about certain details but not about others. Some were certain that they were right only to find out that they were wrong. Others simply guessed (One man kept saying “Fourteen” no matter what the question was). The information that I received was certainly inaccurate. That leads to a scary thought: If second han

I would not have wanted to be Ananias. In Acts 9, the Lord tells him to go to Damascus and find a man named Saul. Ananias protests and says, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints” (verse 13). However, Ananias is told that Saul has been prepared for his arrival. On the way to Damascus, Saul had seen a blinding light, he heard the voice of Jesus and now he was waiting for God’s messenger to come to him. With that knowledge, Ananias goes. He teaches Saul and baptizes him and one of the worst enemies of the faith becomes its biggest promoter (You likely know “Saul” better by his Gentile name, “Paul”). One chapter earlier, Philip is told to go and meet a man from Ethiopia. This man is riding in a chariot and is reading from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. When Philip approaches he asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (Acts 8:30). When the man says that he does not, Philip explains the passage and tells the man “the good

“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush…” (Exodus 3:1-4). God’s people had been slaves in Egypt for more than 400 years. He had heard their cries and had decided to do something (Exodus 3:7-10). In fact, he had a plan. Moses was going to lead them to their new home. While you probably know those details, let me share one fact that I had not seen until last week. The word says that Moses saw the burning bush and said to himself, “I will go over and see this strange sight” and that is when God calls him.

If you were come to our church building right now, you would see that the windows are covered with hundreds of fluorescent orange, green and pink “post-it notes”. Each note contains a word or two that describes something for which someone in the congregation is thankful. This began as an exercise for the teen class, but adults got in on it too. While the notes have only been up for a day, they are having an impact. In fact, every time that I have walked by them today, I have smiled. They are bright, colourful reminders that we have been blessed in many ways, both large and small. Maybe it is just human nature, but it seems that we constantly need to be reminded to focus on the “good” and not just on the things that are wrong or need improvement. It seems that many people (including me) are like toy boats that a child has filled with water. The boat does not sink to the bottom of the lake, but neither does it float. Instead, it sort of wallows just below the surface. When ou

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of a man who was going on a journey. Before he left, he called his servants together and gave them some money to look after until his return. “To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents … said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' "The man with the two talents also came.’Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'… His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! "Then the man who had received the one talent came… I was afraid and

This past week, the world watched as workers brought thirty three Chilean miners back to the surface after they had spent seventy days underground. The scene at the mine was nothing short of impressive. Wives hugged husbands. Children and mothers cried as they awaited the arrival of the next miner. People celebrated and church bells rang. More impressive, maybe, were the words spoken by the men. For example, Mario Sepulveda Espina said, “Life is short. In one minute you can lose it. In one minute it can all be gone. Don’t worry so much about money. Live your life. Live every second of it.” Suddenly, little things were important. Hugging their families, or seeing their sons became a big deal. In fact, just having another day to live was worth celebrating. Things change when you get a second chance to live your life. In Acts chapter 8, a follower of Jesus, named Philip, meets a man from Ethiopia. This man was reading from the book of Isaiah and he was confused, so it says,

On Wednesday nights, I help with an “English as an additional language” course that our church offers. This past week my friend Juwon and I were reading from Acts chapter 2 where it says that the “believers shared everything with each other” (verse 42). We were struggling with this paragraph because I was having trouble explaining the meaning of the word “shared”. Suddenly, though, he understood and once he had that one word, the rest of the paragraph made sense. Sometimes, one word or one phrase makes all the difference. This past week I have been thinking about a phrase from the Gospel of Mark. The angel at Jesus’ tomb says these words, “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him as he told you’” (Mark 16:6-7). The phrase that I have been thinking about is, “He is going ahead of you”. I know

“During the fourth watch of the night (around 3 am) Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It's a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.’ ‘Lord, if it's you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:22-31) Poor Peter! He is often remembered for his failures. He is the one who denied Jesus three times. He is the one who speaks before he thinks. He is the one who, when walking on the water, sank like a rock. Let me ask you this question though: Why was it Peter who got to walk on the water in the fi

Thirty seven years after their songs “Takin’ Care of Business” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” first hit the airwaves, Randy Bachman and Fred Turner (the guys from “Bachman-Turner Overdrive”) are making music together again. During an interview this past week, Bachman was asked if he thought that the band could still be successful and write hits after so many years. His answer is worth noting. He said, “Do we think that we will get any airplay? I don’t know. It really does not matter. We are doing what we were born to do”. I like that quote for two reasons. First, he has found what he was “born to do”. That is not always easy in life. Some people jump from one job to the next, move from one city to another, change companies a dozen times before they find something that really fulfils them. It can be tough. Spiritually, speaking though, it is much easier. In fact, there are only two choices: follow God or follow yourself. The Bible makes it very clear which one we we

On Sunday, I invited a couple of the kids to the front and said, “Can you take this nut off of this bolt and give it back to me? I need it for my sermon.” After about thirty seconds, they said, “We can’t get it apart. It is too tight.” I then said, “Oh! I forgot to give you the tool to use”, so I reached around the podium and handed them a rubber mallet. They were not impressed! In fact, they would not even take the mallet from me, because they knew that it would not help. What they needed was not just “any tool” but the “right tool”. To me, that simple little illustration points out one of the problems that many churches (and individuals) face. They, like the kids in my illustration, are ready to help. They put a lot of time and effort into their faith and service. Unfortunately, like the kids, they do not see positive results because they are going about their work in the wrong way. They do not have the proper tools. What is missing? Well, let’s look at some exampl

By now, I am sure that you have heard about the thirty-three miners that were stuck in a collapsed mine in Chile. Against all odds, after seventeen days of drilling, the rescuers were finally able to confirm that all of the men had survived the collapse and that they were alive. For the families, it was nothing short of a miracle. Not only is this a news story that has a happy ending (which is rare in itself), but I was thinking that this story is a good parallel to the gospel story. You see, spiritually speaking, we were like those miners. We were trapped in a bad place. The apostle Paul puts it this way, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). Fortunately, as in the case of those miners, unbeknownst to us, someone was “digging us out”. “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righ

The purpose of a “movie trailer” is to give you enough of the storyline to get you interested. The hope, of course, is that after you have seen a little bit of the movie that you will want to see all of it. If I were trying to find a section of scripture to use as a “movie trailer” for the word of God, I would pick Psalm 103. In this Psalm, David describes God’s nature, our relationship to him and our hope. Here is a sampling. “Praise the Lord… who forgives all your sins” (verses 1 and 3). “Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's” (verses 4-5). “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (verse 8). “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his childre

“Churches are not Victorian parlors where everything is always picked up and ready for guests. They are messy family rooms… Things are out of order, to be sure, but that is what happens to churches that are lived in. They are not show rooms. They are living rooms, and if the persons living in them are sinners, there are going to be clothes scattered about, handprints on the woodwork and mud on the carpets” (Eugene Peterson, “Reversed Thunder”, page 54). What Peterson says about churches is true of life in general. Unfortunately, life can be messy. It would be nice if everything was simple, easy and straightforward, but it rarely works that way. If seen in picture form, most people’s lives would look more like a river winding its way across a valley, rather than a man made canal that makes a straight line from “point A” to “point B”. We sort of expect things to go smoothly, but experience tells us that is rarely the case. Even a cursory glance at the word of God should be enou

Do you remember those plastic adapters that you used to put in “45 records” so that you could play them on a standard record player? On Sunday morning, I held one of those things up and asked a bunch of kids, “What is this?” They had no idea. Then I turned and asked the adults. There was no uncertainty or hesitation from the “Fifty and over crowd” because they knew the answer (I then asked, “Who knows how to download music from the internet?” – you can guess which group knew the answer this time). There is a difference between knowing and guessing. That difference becomes very clear when we begin to talk about spiritual things. Are you certain about what you believe or are you just hoping that it may be true? Are you convinced or are you “on the fence”? As John closes his first letter, he gives his readers three big ideas to “know” and be certain about. First, if you are a Christian, you are safe. “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was

The interrogation from the “Israeli Airlines” attendant was not unexpected. I had been warned that they had the strictest screening policy in the airline business (even before 9/11). After taking me aside, asking a bunch of questions and leaving me standing all alone in the middle of “Pearson International Airport”, there was no question who was in charge in this situation. If I wanted to go anywhere, I needed to recognize this man’s authority, answer his questions and do whatever he asked me to do. Fifteen minutes later, he came back, gave me my passport and wished me a good trip. Authority is not to be fooled with. “By what authority are you doing these things… who gave you this authority” (Luke 20:2). Over the course of his earthly ministry, Jesus heard those questions many times. Jesus’ reply is summed up in these words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). The “Authority of Christ” is not just a subject for theological discussion

I believe that we all need a “Barnabas” and a “Timothy”. Barnabas was a respected leader in the early church and his name is found all over the book of Acts. His greatest trait, though, seemed to be the fact that he was an encourager. (His real name is “Joseph” but apostles nicknamed him “Barnabas” which means “Son of Encouragement”). Barnabas did many great things, but maybe none more influential to the course of Christian history than what he did in Acts 9. At the start of that chapter, we read about the conversion of Paul. Formerly known as Saul, he opposed the teaching about Christ and even actively sought out believers so that he could have them arrested and brought back to Jerusalem for trial. One day, as he traveled to Damascus, Saul saw a bright light, heard the voice of Jesus and within days he was he was baptized and became a believer. The conversion of Saul could not have been more surprising, so it is understandable that the Christians were a little wary of him. Ac

When I was in Bible College, I met a guy that I did not really like that much. He did not particularly like me either. We were completely different. We never fought or had any huge disagreements, but we did not go out of our way to spend any time together either. Then I moved to Estevan and guess who was living here. The guy I avoided in college was the only other single college age guy in the congregation, so we were sort of stuck hanging out together. As it turned out, we found out that we were more alike than we first assumed. Twenty years later, he is still one of my best friends. Sometimes we just sort of “get off on the wrong foot” with people. We assume that we know who they are because we have heard certain things about them. We put people in categories only to find out later that we were completely wrong in our assessment of them. Could it be that people do the same thing with God? I mean, we all have an impression of what he is like, but have we really spent the

On January 12, 2007, in a Washington DC metro station, a young man took out his violin and began to play. Over the next 45 minutes, he played six Bach pieces as approximately 1100 people walked past him. After three minutes, a middle-aged man slowed down, listened for a few seconds, and then hurried to meet his schedule. At the four minute mark, the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. He had been playing for six minutes when a young man leaned against the wall, listened, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. After ten minutes, a 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. Several other children tired to stop and every parent, without exception, forced his or her child to move on quickly. Overall, a total of seven people stopped to listen for a short while. Twenty seven people threw some money in the hat and the man collected a total of $32 (One man contributed $20 of

Imagine a little girl, about a year old, being passed around in a group of people. Her eyes begin to tear up, her lip quivers and she begins bawling! No one can calm her, so she is passed back to her mom. Immediately, the tears stop and everything is ok. A little boy starts playing hockey and he is terrible! He cannot skate. He cannot shoot. He is always going the wrong way and he never seems to know what to do. Up in the stands, though, he sees his mom. She has a big smile on her face. She cheers for her little boy as if he is next Wayne Gretzky and he knows that she is proud of him. A girl comes home crying. Grade five can be difficult. Some of the other girls were being mean and making fun of her. She feels like she does not have a friend in the world. Her mom sits her down and listens to her. She tells her little girl that she is the most beautiful, most wonderful and most loved little girl in the world. The girl wipes her tears and goes on knowing that, no matte

Many things in the book of Revelation are confusing. There are so many symbolic things to make sense of that many people do not venture too far into the book. That is unfortunate, though, because among all the “confusing” things there are some plain, simple and encouraging words. Last night as part of our “Basic Bible study” (a time where people get together, read the word and talk about what they think is important from the passage), we read several chapters of Revelation. Here are some of the phrases that encouraged me. “You [Jesus] were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (4:9-10). “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (21:6-7). “The Spirit and the bride [God’s people]

When evaluating Spiritual things, we ought to keep in mind two stories that Jesus told, both of which can be found in Matthew 13. "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (verses 9-12). The second story is found in verses 24-31. "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, 

For centuries, people have treasured the Biblical book of Psalms. It has been both a prayer guide and a songbook for God’s people. In it, we read about a God who is always “shepherding” us and will never let us down. The Psalms also helps us express a wide range of emotions including things like sadness, grief, impatience and even anger. From that, we learn that God is willing to listen regardless of what we have to say. One of the best reasons to read the Psalms, though, is to hear words of praise. Many of the Psalms focus on the joy of knowing the Lord and the blessing of his salvation. The following is a portion of one such Psalm. “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his tr

It should go without saying that our model of how to do things and what to value needs to be Jesus himself. After all, he was the embodiment of God. “The Word [Jesus] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Unfortunately, this is not always the case. It is easy to get off track and begin to follow something else entirely. For example, I have heard people quoting well-known preachers as if they were quoting the word of God: “Well, so and so says…” I have seen churches model their entire program and worship after some big church that they admire. “Tradition” often directs our paths. Who has not heard someone say, “We do it this way because this is the way that we have always done it”? Certainly, we can (and should) learn from others and from the traditions that have been past down to us. However, I would suggest that we need somethi

Last spring, I took my dog Murphy for a run. He had been sitting around in the back yard most of the winter, so I thought that he would enjoy the chance to get out on the open road. I was wrong! As we started running, he began going slower and slower. This was strange. Normally, I can hardly keep up to him. Then he started limping. I did not think too much of it at the time. After all, he is getting older and he had put on a lot of weight over the winter. Eventually he stopped running all together. It turns out that the pads on his paws were all cracked, so I took him home and we called the vet. She explained that a combination of the cold weather and the lack of real exercise had caused his paws to become hard and unable to take the force of running on the road, so we had to bandage his paws and soften them up with ointments so that they could heal. The moral of the story: Lying around all winter and getting fat did nothing to help my dog prepare for running. In fa

Spring is here (sort of) and that means one thing: The NHL playoffs are just around the corner! The NHL is divided into two conferences: “Eastern” and “Western”. The winner of the Eastern Conference is awarded the “Prince of Wales trophy” and the winner of the Western Conference is given the “Clarence S. Campbell Bowl”. Now, there is an interesting tradition surrounding these two trophies. It states that the winning team is not supposed to touch them. Most of the time, when a team wins anything, the trophy is passed around from player to player. That is not the case with the Prince of Wales or the Campbell trophies. Though the tradition has been broken at times (most recently by Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009), normally the team captain poses for one relatively unhappy looking photo with the trophy and then the ceremony is over. Why? Players do not touch or hoist the conference trophies because those trophies are not their goal. Their goal is to win th

Do you know the name, “Bob Keeshan”? Likely not – but you probably do know him. He was the actor that played “Captain Kangaroo”. Captain Kangaroo was one of the most successful children’s shows of all time. Interestingly, Bob Keeshan was 28 years old when he got the part of the much older Captain. This meant that before taping the show he had to spend hours in the make up chair. They put a gray wig on his head. They glued on a big gray moustache. They added wrinkles and a pair of glasses to make him look wiser. It was a long process every day. However, as time went on, Bob found that he had to spend less time in the chair. Eventually, he did not need the gray wig because his own hair had turned gray. No longer did he need the fake moustache – he could grow his own. Real wrinkles eventually showed up so that he did not need the fake ones. As Bob said, “I eventually grew into the part”. I like that as a picture for Christian people. As we start the Christian w

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:17-19). Our lives are lived between the extremes of being either overly self-denying (on one side) or overly ambitious (on the other). If you lean too far towards the self-denying side then there is the possibility that you may get to the end of your life and say, "Huh... I wish I would have done...” (whatever). The greater danger, though, as I see it, is that ambition can grow into greed and dissatisfaction with everything. Nothing is good enough and there is no contentment or real joy because there is always somet

Approaching Amarillo, Texas and looking to the west, all I could see were huge, dark clouds. As the clouds moved closer, the wind, which until this point had been just a nice breeze, started to blow so hard that it was hard to keep the van on the interstate. Then the rain started. Just a trickle at first, a few drop here and there, and then it became a complete downpour. The rain was coming so fast and so hard that you could no longer drive the speed limit because, first, you could not see and, second, the vehicle was hydroplaning all over the place. Then the hail began. Again, not hard at first, but by the time we reached the outer limits of Amarillo some of them were approaching marble and then golf ball size. It was beginning to get a little scary. We got off the road and hid under the canopy of gas station and then that I saw something that I had never seen before or since. All kinds of cars, trucks and semis began parking under an overpass – right on the interstate! I

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). The first thing to notice here is that “God works” – today! It is one thing to believe that God did something in the past (creation, sending his Son). It is another thing to believe that he will do something in the future (Christ’s return, Heaven). It is essential, though, to believe that he is doing something now. Without that belief, all we have to work with are our own skills, knowledge and best efforts. However, if God is involved in my life on a daily basis, maybe there is power and hope, even when I do not see or understand everything at this moment. That leads to the second important statement and that is that things will be “good”. Notice that the verse does not say, “God will work to make you happy”. The truth is that God works for my “good” even when it does not like “good” to me. Parents understand this principle. You do no

We make a huge mistake when we read the Bible in the same way that we read a newspaper. Newspapers give you as much information as they can “up front”. In other words, they give you a big headline and then spend a few paragraphs giving you the facts of the story. In the first few sentences of the article, you get a majority of the important information. On the other hand, in a novel or a story the most important information is held until the very end. You do not know all that you need to know unless you read right to the last page. With that in mind, it is important for us to remember that the Bible is more “story” than “newspaper”. The Bible contains a lot of facts, but they are sprinkled throughout the story. As the gospel of Luke closes, we come across the most important parts of his message: the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We need to keep reading, though, because the second last verse in the book contains one of the most important details of all. “When he ha

For the past 18 months, I have been preaching through the gospel of Luke on Sunday mornings, so when that ended, I wondered, “Where do I go now?” The answer, I decided, was the little letter of “First John”. First John was written to a group of Christians who knew the gospel well. In fact, John spends very little time reviewing the details of the past. Instead, he focuses on the response of the people. In other words, First John has a lot to say about “How we live because of what we know” and it starts in the first four verses of the book. After a briefly sketching the coming of Christ, he goes on to say, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete” (1 John 1:3-4). Notice the message that John wants to proclaim; he wants them to hear about “fellowship”. Fellowship is not the word I would expect to see there. I would hav

The Eiffel Tower is interesting to me. Over the years, I have read about it, watched a couple of documentaries about its construction and I have even spent some time on “Google Maps” trying to understand where it is in relation to other things in Paris. I can tell you that it was built by an engineer named Gustave Eiffel. The tower served as was the entrance arch for the 1889 World's Fair and at a height of 324 m (1,063 ft – approximately the height of an 81-story building) it is the tallest structure in Paris. You probably know that it was not meant to be permanent (the original building permit called for it to be taken down after 20 years), but its usefulness as a communications tower saved it until it became the symbol of Paris that it is today. While I can tell you lots about the Eiffel Tower, it is a completely different thing to talk to someone who can say, “When we were there…” The subject is the same, but the content is different when you speak to someone who has expe

“While they were still talking about this (the reports of Jesus’ resurrection), Jesus himself stood among them” (Luke 24:36) I wonder if Jesus’ followers were scared when they saw him. I know that the passage goes on to say, “They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost” (verse 37), but I mean, "Were they scared of Jesus himself and what he might do to them?” Put yourself in their position for a moment. Jesus had been arrested three days earlier, put on trial and killed on the cross. When that happened, every one of the people in that dark little room, with the possible except of John and few of the women, ran away and left Jesus alone. In fact, Peter outright denied knowing Jesus three separate times. For all the teaching they had heard and miracles that they had seen, when push came to shove, they deserted the son of God. Now, Jesus has returned from the dead and he is standing right in front of them. What is he going to do? If the disciples were scare

According to researchers, today (the third Monday in January) is the worst day of the year. Apparently, by this date, winter seems too long, the days are too short, the stress of Christmas has caught up to us and it is usually minus 35 outside. Fortunately, today things do not look that bad. In fact, it is bright and sunny, the temperature is hovering around the freezing mark and we have not had too shovel a lot of snow yet. However, just in case the researchers are right and you are struggling today, here are some thoughts that may lift your spirits. - “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). - “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and

As the two men walked down the road, they were completely defeated and confused. One week earlier, they could hardly contain their excitement as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Everyone was shouting and celebrating, because the long awaited “King” had just ridden into town as predicted. The next day, Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple. He took exposed the deceitful and uncaring hearts of the religious leaders of the day. Everything looked great. Then, this great teacher was arrested. Suddenly he went from being “king” and “liberator of the people”, to being a prisoner. Taken back and forth between the Roman and Jewish authorities, he was tried, convicted and crucified. Now it is Sunday and the men are heading home. As they discuss their crushed hopes and try to make sense of everything that happened, a stranger comes along side of them and asks them what they were discussing. The Bible says, “They stood still, their faces downcast” (Luke 24:17)

The week before Christmas, I saw two shooting stars. I saw the first one while driving down Kensington Street. A white streak of light shot from left to right across the southern sky and I asked my youngest daughter, “Did you see that?” Her response was, “Nope! I was looking the other way”. I saw the second one while driving back from a Christmas concert in Regina. It was about 12:30 at night and I was on highway 39, just outside of Weyburn when a bright green streak caught my eye. It was falling straight down and as it got closer to the earth, it seemed to slow down and the path of light behind it got larger and larger. It was only there for a second, but it cast a bright green glow throughout the vehicle. “Did you see that?” I asked the rest of the family. The answer was, “no”. Sara was sort of half sleeping and had her eyes closed. The girls said that they saw the glow, but they missed seeing the shooting star. Now here is the thing: Scientists claim that there