Consider this

 Anyone who tells you that following God means life will be easy is lying to you. Many of God's people faced difficult circumstances. In this lesson, we will meet one such lady and her story will not only teach us something about our struggles but, more importantly, how God sees us when they come along. This is good information to hold close as we enter a new year.  

 It is not that we do not know about these gifts. It is not even that we do not understand what they do. The issue is simply that we forget. We get busy and focused on other things. If we are going to be spiritually strong, we are going to need these tools.  

                 Luke 5:15-16 holds one of the most surprising facts about Jesus.   It says, “The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed”.                To me, that is shocking.   Had I not read the Bible, this is not how I would have pictured Jesus.   I would have expected that, if the creator of the universe took on human form, he would act in super-human ways.   Maybe he would fly from one location to another.   Or maybe he would be able to become invisible.   Or maybe he would not ever need to eat, sleep or rest.   However, none of that is true.                Scripture states that while Jesus was fully...

                 When little kids come to your door on Halloween night, you know they are pretending to be something they are not.   You do not expect that the ten-year-old dressed as a mechanic will change the oil in your car.   You can be fairly certain that the pirate on your porch will not force his way in and plunder all your jewellery.   There are times when pretending is not only fine but expected.                On the other hand, sometimes it matters that you do more than just look the part.   If you are going for surgery, the minimum expectation is that your doctor attended medical school.   If you are getting on an airplane, it is nice to know that the pilot has flown a plane before.   I...

 If you measure the wrong things, you will get a wrong result.   That is a simple principle, but one that is often ignored when it comes to spiritual qualities. We often look at the wrong things when measuring our faith. We value things like titles, flashy services and spotlights. God, however, is looking for something different. Something much deeper. This lesson is 24 minutes long. Communion immediately following.    

                 Fear is a great motivator when you find yourself in a life-threatening situation.   Fear can cause you to run faster, fight harder, and act more quickly than normal.   For a brief time, fear-based reactions can be very useful.   Over the long run, though, a fearful approach to life tends to lead to problem avoidance and poor decision-making.   1 Samuel 17 is a perfect example of this truth.                Twice a day, for forty days, a giant named Goliath challenged God’s people.   When the army looked at him, all they saw was his nine-foot-tall frame and the immense strength that he possessed.   We are told that “[King] Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrif...

 Life is not always easy and answers do not always come quickly. Some of God's most faithful people had to wait years and years before they saw their situations resolved. However, waiting on the Lord always produced something better than they could have imagined. You are not alone and you always have help..... that is the message God has been teaching from the start.  

 What if I told you that you had one blessing that could change everything for you and those around you? In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that we would be rooted in love and that we would understand the extent of God's love. Love is not soft, weak or sappy. Love is our strength. Love is the currency of God's kingdom. We must learn to deal in love.  

                 “There are no trees in Saskatchewan!”                I have heard that statement many times, mostly from people who moved to Estevan from places like British Columbia or northern Ontario.   Compared to what they expect, Saskatchewan, and Estevan in particular, seems rather barren.   However, that statement is not true.   More than half the province is covered with trees.   Go up north and there are trees everywhere.                A few months ago, I came across an aerial photo of Estevan from the 1950s.   When I showed it to my girls, the first thing they said was, “Wow, there are no trees in that picture!”   The photo looked odd ...

 Sometimes we do things the way we do them, not because they are the right way, but simply because that is the way we were taught. I believe that prayer is that way.... and we are missing out. In this three part series from Ephesians 3, we will listen to how Paul prayers, what he prays for and what he expects prayer to do. There is much more to prayer than we know. Today we will find out what prayer actually does.    

 Pretending is ok sometimes. When nothing is on the line and nothing matters, it makes no difference. However, as soon as you are dealing with something important, authenticity and integrity become important. Talking a good game is not enough. In this lesson, we get a list of things to get rid of and things to invest in.  

               A young man broke into a business and did $5000 damage. As part of his Restorative Justice sentence, he was required to meet with my friend Garth.   Garth believes in making apologies and restitution.   It took several months, but Garth finally convinced the young man that these were necessary steps, so he tried to arrange a meeting with the business owner.                The business owner wanted nothing to do with this situation.   He was angry and wanted a more severe form of justice.   Eventually, however, he agreed to meet the young man to hear what he had to say.                  The young man looked the business owner in the eye an...

 It is easy to get swept up in activity and running from one thing to the next. While there are seasons in life that are naturally more busy than others, we must not allow the rush to overwhelm the important. In today's lessons, three keys to finding the life God wants for us. Some thoughts about slowing down.  

 It is not that people do not want to listen. The problem is that the church is talking about things that they do not care about. We need to refine and clarify our message so that it is not only heard, but understood and wanted as well.  

                 We would be shocked if we could hear the Bible for the first time again.   On every page, something unexpected happens.   The only reason we are not surprised is that the stories are so familiar to us.   Think about some of the unexpected interactions that God has had with his people.                For example, every culture has stories about a creator, but none imagined that God would become part of the creation.   That the creator would lower himself and become human is surprising, to say the least.                Not only did he become one of us, but he also came as a baby.   A tiny, helpless, baby!   If I wer...

You cannot earn your salvation. However, we are told that we ought to live lives worthy of it. To get started, here are two areas to focus on.  

 Remembering where we came from, how we got here and the blessings we share.  

                 Almost every culture has a genie-in-the-bottle-type story in which someone frees a being from captivity and is granted three wishes.     Often the wishes go wrong.   For example, the man who asks for a pile of money finds it difficult to know his real friends because everyone wants something from him.   The woman who asks for a life of leisure finds that a life without stress is boring.   The moral is that we do not know what to ask for and that what we think we need may harm us.                I bring this up because our prayers often sound like our three wishes list.   We ask for what we think we need and overlook what would be most beneficial.   On top of that, o...

 We think that we know what we want. However, some of the things we wish for would actually be harmful to us. What we really need is to know what is best for us and how to get it.  

 If you do not know this, you need to. If you do, you need to share it.  

           I am selfish and like to be left alone! There, I said it.   I want to do my own things, in my own time, in my own way.   I do not want to rearrange my whole day to help others.   Given the choice, I would spend every day off working in my garage by myself.   My idea of a great holiday includes an island in the middle of a lake in northern Saskatchewan, a canoe, a tent and silence. However, there are two problems with that sort of thinking.   First, many people have gone out of their way to help me over the years.   Tons of people put their own selfish desires to the side so that they could help me and teach me things that I did not know. Had they acted selfishly, I do not know how my life would have turned out.   Second, and more im...

 Joy rests on perspective. Are you looking at what you have, or what you lack? Are you looking at how far you have come, or how far you have to go? At the start of Ephesians, Paul gives us some unchanging reasons to rejoice.  

 The fact that I struggled to explain this (and, in the end, did not do very well) is likely a sign that we do not talk about this enough. Sin is more than just one wrong action. It is forgetting who we are and who we are becoming.  

               Their stories could not have been more different from one another.   One was a man, the other a woman.   One is named, the other is anonymous.   One was from the city, the other the country.   One story happened in the dark of night and the other in the bright sunshine of mid-day.   One was proudly Jewish and the other was from a mixed-race background.   One was highly respected and honoured in society and the other was shamed and shunned.   Both had a conversation with Jesus. However, one visit was initiated by the person and the other by Jesus himself.   One conversation began with a spiritual question and the other with a question about something as mundane as a drink of water.            ...

 The transitions of life remind us that nothing lasts forever.... not even this life.  Keeping the end in mind helps us live in the blessings of God now.  

 If you want to change something, you must start with your thinking. Here is a thought that we need to adopt in order to follow Christ well.  

                  God had blessed Isaac, and everything was going well; until it was not.   Famine hit the promised land, so Isaac moved his family south to the region of Gerar.   There he planted crops and became even more wealthy (Genesis 26:1-13).   Everything was great again; until it was not.                His neighbours became jealous of him and filled his water well with dirt.   Isaac took the hint, moved east, and dug another well (verses 14-19).                However, the herdsmen there said, “The water is ours” (verse 20) and they took his well.   Isaac dug another well, but they argued about that one too, so he moved even further...

 Most people know the basics of the gospel. However, I believe that most are missing one important piece. This is the message we need to believe and share.  

 A Swiss army knife provides a lot of different tools in a small item. This scripture is similar in that it gives a lot of tools in a small scripture. No one wants trouble, but it can be beneficial if you handle it this way.  

                   Though Peter and Judas’ nights started similarly, they ended completely differently.                On the night of the Passover feast, Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.   After Jesus was arrested, Judas had a change of heart and Matthew 27:3 tells us that he was “seized with remorse”.   On that same night, Peter saw Jesus arrested and, though he had said that he would die for Jesus (Matthew 26:35), he denied knowing him three separate times (Matthew 26:69-74).   When he realized his failure, he went outside and wept bitterly (verse 75).                Judas and Peter were the same in that they both failed and fe...

 I used to believe that if we emphasized grace too much, it would encourage people to be careless about their choices and encourage bad behaviour. Why try to be good if everything is forgiven anyway? However, the truth is that grace is the only hope we have.  

 An unlikely source teaches us two spiritual principles that will help us deal with life's difficult moments.  

                  As recently as the 1950s, having a baby was a risky proposition.   One in thirty births ended badly until an anesthesiologist named Virginia Apgar developed a system to rate how newborns were doing.   She focused on five key areas (appearance, pulse, the reflex action or grimace, activity or muscle tone and respiration).   She encouraged doctors and nurses to rate each child on a scale of zero to three for each quality.   A score of 10 or more meant that the baby was healthy; 4 or lower indicated that the baby needed immediate intervention.                While numerous other medical advances have occurred over the years, all agree that Apgar’s rating system had a huge impact. ...

 The church could talk about a million different things. The Bible is full of all kinds of teaching. However, for thousands of years, there has been a consistent message that needs to be shared. This lesson is both a reminder and an invitation.  

 When we imagine what God is like, we usually make one of two mistakes.... we either see him as being too stern or too permissive. The truth is somewhere in-between. Fortunately, we do not have to wonder or guess. God himself tells us what he is like and that changes how we relate to him. A Father's Day lesson about our heavenly father.  

                 When the apostle Paul arrived in the city of Corinth, he felt defeated.   Despite his best efforts, nothing was working.   Instead of people responding to his preaching with faith, he had been ignored, mocked, thrown in jail, or run out of town everywhere he went.   His confidence was so low that he said he came to Corinth “in weakness and fear, and with much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3). Then he received a word of encouragement that changed everything.                Jesus spoke to Paul in a vision and said, “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” (Acts 18:9-10).   That o...

 Rarely is the path to happiness and success a straight line. Here are two important truths to keep in mind as we experience life's twists and turns.  

 God's standard is high and none of us can live up to it. Now what? Here is a hint.... Jesus keeps putting us back into the boat.  

                 As I was visiting with a buddy who owns a tree care business, a man came up and asked about having some trees removed from his yard and others trimmed up.   When my friend asked why he wanted this work done, the man replied that the trees were too big, and he wanted to get them under control.   I thought my buddy’s response was interesting.   He said that you cannot control a tree.   Trees are genetically predisposed to be a certain shape and size.   You can cut the top or the sides off, but the tree will regrow to the height and shape that it was before.   I know that this is true because, a few years ago, a neighbour cut the tops off his evergreen trees.   Guess what happened.   The trees regrew to the height they we...

 What if I told you that the church's message has nothing to do with a thought pattern that says, "Be better! Try harder!"? What if I told you that the self-help sort of lessons that we often hear are off base? What if God has something for us that is much deeper and much better? Maybe more people would be interested if they knew what God was really offering.  

 No one likes waiting. It seems like a waste of time. Seen correctly, though, waiting can be helpful and even productive. In the end, it is not that we wait, but how we wait that makes the difference. Here are some thoughts that may help us wait well.  

                   Nothing in Estevan, Saskatchewan makes people angrier than trains.   Our town is divided by the CP Rail tracks and it seems that trains roll through at the most inopportune times.   Last week, a train blocked the tracks on Kensington Avenue and by the time it finally moved vehicles were lined up, two lanes wide, all the way back to Walmart.   Lately, the railway seems to be better at avoiding the peak traffic hours, but people still hate waiting on trains.                It seemed strange, then, that a couple of Mondays ago people happily lined up and waited for hours for a train to come through town.   This was no ordinary train though.   It was a steam locomotive built in December 193...

 As we celebrate Mother's Day, consider this.... what would it be like if the church treated people in the same way that a good mother treats her children? What would happen if we were known as being different than everyone else, but in the best way possible? Here is a hint..... we would look like Jesus!  

 "Busy" and "tired" are two words that carry a lot of weight with most of us. "Busy" and "tired" makes us sound important, needed, and like we have something going on. We don't necessarily like the feeling of being being busy and tired, but we like the impression it gives.  When Jesus comes on the scene, he offers something else: Rest! Relief! Shelter! Hope! I am still learning this lesson, but I know this, it is a good and necessary one.  (PS. One of the kids kicked the tripod right in the middle of the lesson. Sorry! However, I must say that I am happy that we have kids around the building to kick the thing.... so that is good!) :)  

                 “God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).                Over the years, when I have heard lessons about worshipping God in spirit and in truth, the focus has always been on the “in truth” part.   However, if we are ever going to connect with God, we must recognize the spirit part of that phrase.                We must understand that the most important facts about us have nothing to do with how we look, where we have been, what we do for a living, what we have in the bank or how we grew up.   The most important fact about each of us is that we are spiritual beings.   We have a spirit that will live on when our short time on this earth is over.          ...

 It is easy to take our blessings for granted. It is easy to coast along in our faith and never really see what we have been given. However, that is not ideal. In fact, we will never grow that way. If we want our faith to be alive, we need to notice, remember, and value the important things. This is a lesson about what is important and what shapes us for God.  

 You may know that the Bible says that God is Spirit..... God is light.... and God is love.  However, do you know why those statements are important? Do you know what they indicate about us and our relationship to him? Do you know how these statements can offer guidance in our everyday life? That is what this lesson is going to try to explain.  PS. The last point should probably be the first as it is the context in which all the others take place. If you watch only one part, skip to point three (though the other two are important as well)  Also, feel free to share this video. Send it to someone directly. Share it through your social media accounts if you like. Have a great week!    

                 Most people know and can articulate Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth.   Luke 19:10 tells us that Jesus came to seek and save the lost.   His death, burial and resurrection gained us our salvation.   As 2 Corinthians 5:21 beautifully states, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”.   You likely know what Jesus did, but do you know what he is doing now?    Jesus currently has a one-word job description: He intercedes for us!   “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).   Jesus is making our case on our behalf and provides access to his father’s throne so that we can find grace and ...

 I hope you have never felt guilty about "not doing enough for Jesus". However, based on more than 34 years of church conversations, I suspect that you have. What if I told you that "doing something for Jesus" is not the Biblical pattern? What if there is a better and much more freeing approach? This changes everything!  

 It is great to have skill, desire and plans. However, this first step is the most powerful part of any process.   

               In 1950, before Alan Shephard became the first American in space, he was a fighter pilot aboard the USS Oriskany.   One night while cruising around the western Pacific, the radar operator spotted two unidentified aircraft and Shepherd was dispatched to go check them out.   After strapping into his Banshee jet fighter, he launched, found the aircraft, and identified them as allies.   That was the easy part.                Soon, bad weather rolled in, and Shephard found himself in heavy, driving rain.   Unable to see and flying by his instruments, he headed home.   Then his electrical equipment shut down.                Facing ...

 The resurrection is not just a nice ending to Jesus' life story, it changes our life story in two areas (if we let it).  

 If it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then these two pictures from the night before Jesus' crucifixion say a lot. In fact, together they tell the good news in miniature form.  

                   “Is that a Sun Ice?”                “Excuse me,” I said.                My friend pointed to my new ski jacket and asked again, “Is that a Sun Ice?”                It was 1991 and Sun Ice was the big name in ski wear at the time.   “No” I replied, “I can’t afford one of those”.                “Oh” he said as he lost interest and then just walked away.                I had not seen this friend in more than a year and, sadly, his first ...

 Everyone struggles. That is just a fact. Some struggle with huge life issues. Others struggle with issues that are huge to them. No one has it all together. Jesus wants to help us heal and grow, but that happens best when certain conditions are in place. How do we put ourselves in the best position to be blessed by God? Mark 8 gives us some good reminders.  

 It is easy to evaluate our life the way everyone else does. It is easy to define success in only one way. But what if that way is wrong? What if the story we are telling ourselves isn't the right one? What if something important is still missing? We need a better story to tell.  

 Jesus spent three years trying to teach his followers some basic life lessons. They did not understand! Interestingly, we struggle with the same lessons. However, life would go better if we could learn and live the things that Jesus taught. Here are three life lessons worth knowing.  

                 The disciples saw the problem and then Jesus made it worse.   A huge crowd has spent the entire day in a remote area listening to Jesus preach.   As nightfall came, the disciples urged Jesus to let the people go so that they could find something to eat.   “You give them something to eat” Jesus replied.   That seemed ridiculous!   More than five thousand people had gathered to hear Jesus.   The disciples replied that giving each person even a little bread would take more than eight months' wages.   You likely know the rest of the story.   Jesus took what they had, five loaves of bread and two fish, multiplied it and fed all the people with lots left over (Mark 6:30-44). The feeding of the five thousand is the only mirac...