Consider this

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]...