Consider this

                “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.   When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field” (Matthew 13:44).                     If our faith is going to be alive and meaningful, we must focus on the treasure and not on the field.                 Years ago, I knew a girl who seemed to have it all.   She was popular, bright and she was dating one of the best athletes in the school.   It seemed like everything was going her way.   However, years later, life has not gone according to plan and now she finds herself in a very difficult place.   God is still blessing her, but she does not seem to know it.   If she could just see the eternal things in her life, she would find deep relationships, forgiveness, grace, joy and freedom.   Sadly, she has lost sight of her treasure because she is so discouraged by the circumstances of her field.                   The other mistake that we often make is

               When reading the Bible, it is important to pay attention to the small details of the stories.   Often, those details are the point.                   For example, in Genesis 13 Abram (or “Abraham” as he is more well known) and his nephew Lot have a problem.   Their flocks and herds have become so large that the land cannot support both of them, so Abram comes up with a plan.                 He said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine… Is not the whole land before you?   Let’s part company.   If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right.   If you go to the right, I’ll go to the left” (verses 8-9).                 Did you catch the small, but very important detail?   If you miss it, then you will miss a big part of the lesson and example of Abram.                 Abram allowed Lot to choose the land that he wanted.                 That detail is important because that is not the normal procedure.   Abram is

                It seems that everyone I know is planting a garden this year.   Even those who have had no interest in gardening before are building raised beds and talking about which variety of tomato grows best around here. My grandparents always had a garden and as did Sara’s Dad, so I know a little bit about them.   In fact, I think that gardens can remind us of some important spiritual truths.                 For example, gardening is all about expectation and anticipation.   Those are two of my favourite words these days.   When you plant a garden, you do not plant the finished product.   Rather, you plant seeds hoping that they will become something fruitful.   Gardening is an investment of time and energy now so that you can reap the rewards later.                 The process of sowing and reaping is a constant theme in the word of God.   Paul reminded the Corinthian church that, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap

               There are times when our problems seem insurmountable and no matter how hard we try we cannot find a way out.   When that happens, it is easy to just give up, pout and feel sorry for ourselves.   One day, though, Jesus’ disciples discovered another option.                   Thousands of people had gathered to hear Jesus’ teaching.   As evening fell, the disciples looked over the crowd and realized that they had a problem, so they found Jesus and said, “This is a remote place and it is already very late.   Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat” (Mark 6:35-36).   Jesus’ responded, “You give them something to eat” (verse 37). Suddenly the disciples had a problem that they did not create and could not handle.   After a quick calculation, they estimated that it would take more than eight months’ wages to feed all those people and even then each person would only get a small bite (John 6:7).   T