Consider this

“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