Consider this

This past weekend, “Clearview Christian Camp” at Kenosee Lake celebrated its 50th Anniversary. Clearview is sort of a “sacred place” for me. Just being there brings back good memories of laughing around the campfire, work days building cabins and of people who lived their faith and were an example to me. Just being at that camp always connects me to good things from the past. Why am I telling you this? Well, lately I have been thinking more about the importance of memories. When a person loses their memory, either because of injury or age, they lose something very significant. Somehow, our ability to live well now is tied to our ability to remember what has gone on before. That is the principle that is on display in Joshua chapter four. After God miraculously stopped the flow of the Jordan River so the Israelites could cross into the promised land, he gave this command: “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from ...

This past week, the Canadian Space Agency hosted the first ever “Orbital Debris Workshop”. The purpose of the conference was to talk about “space junk” and what to do about it. Apparently, there are more than 16 000 pieces of debris, such as defunct satellites and spent rockets, which are being tracked and monitored. Beyond that, there are another 6 000 pieces that scientists are aware of but have not catalogued. There are also believed to be more than 100 000 pieces of space junk smaller than 5 centimetres in diameter that are currently orbiting their way around the earth. All this junk is a big problem for those who operate satellites or send people into space. For example, in 1983 the Space Shuttle Challenger came back to earth with a huge crack in one of its windows after it was struck by a paint chip that was floating around. The “International Space Station” has had to change course and the astronauts have been on “evacuation alert” several times because of incoming hazard...

Genesis chapter one tells us that man was created in the image of God (verse 26) and that he was created to be in relationship with God. Unfortunately, sin entered the picture and that damaged not only man’s relationship with God (Genesis 3), but also man’s relationship with his fellow man (Genesis 4). As a result, though we should be worshipping God and serving one another, we end up serving ourselves and worshipping anything but God. When that happens, we have trouble, as Psalm 115 points out. “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Why do the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throat...

In Exodus 4, we find an interesting conversation. God has a job for Moses to do and Moses has a bunch of excuses for why he cannot do it. On the surface, this looks like a very straightforward passage, but I want to suggest to you that there is more going on than what we first see. In fact, I think that there is a third voice in this conversation; the voice of Satan. Granted, none of Satan’s words are directly recorded, but I believe his presence is easily recognized by his influence and action. In this passage, we see one of Satan’s best and most effective tools: “Doubt”. We also hear one of his best and most useful questions: “Really?” Put those two things together and you see the effect on Moses. “Do you really think anyone will listen to you Moses? Do you really think that this plan will work? Do you really think that you can just walk up to Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world, and demand the release of the Israelites? Do you really think your ‘miraculous sig...

One of the blessings over the past half century or so has been the emphasis on “a personal relationship with God” that has taught that faith requires more than just being part of a group. For faith to be effective, I need to learn to pray, trust, follow and apply the teachings of the Lord to my own life. Ultimately, on the “Judgment Day” I will not stand with “my group”. My eternity will be determined by what I did about Jesus and his offer of forgiveness on the cross. However, like most things in life, balance is necessary and in this case maybe we have overcompensated the other way. If, at one time, the prevailing thought was, “Just sit in this building as part of this group and you will be ok”, we may have swung too far the other way so that now we say, “My faith is about me and God and I do not need anyone else”. Interestingly, though, the Bible seems to suggest that we do need one another. One of the places where this becomes evident is the “one another” passages in the New ...

“God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ ‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground’” (Exodus 3:4b-5). When I was growing up in church, I was taught that there were no “Holy Places”. There was nothing sacred about our church building. It was just a building. What made it sacred were the people that gathered there. There was no holy alter or sacred pulpit. Everything was ordinary and nothing was special in and of itself. Yet, in Exodus 3, Moses, who is literally out in the middle of nowhere in the desert of Midian, stumbles upon “Holy Ground”. He is warned not to take this lightly, because he is in the presence of the living God. What? How did that happen? How did Moses find the one spot, in the entire world, that was “Holy Ground”? Furthermore, why is it located in such a remote spot? Something is wrong here. Well, what if my early instruction was wrong? I mea...

Conventional wisdom says, “Small town churches cannot grow”. Apparently, the people in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan have not received that memo yet. This past weekend, our family was “traded” to Gravelbourg in a “preacher swap” (I went there for the morning and their minister came here) and it was great! We have some good friends there, so that would have made the trip worthwhile in itself, but I was also encouraged by what I saw there. Not only is the congregation “holding its own” but it is also expanding numerically (several new families) and physically (a large, beautiful addition to their building). Ultimately, all growth comes from the action of God. That was Paul’s point when he talked about the growth of the church in Corinth: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6) and I am certain that the Christians in Gravelbourg would say something similar about their growth. However, I as I looked out over the crowd on Sunday mor...