Consider this

            God’s people were in big trouble.   Shortly after being told that they were to “Have no other gods” and that they were not to make “an idol” (Exodus 20), they, inexplicably, create a Golden Calf and worship it (Exodus 32).   God’s reaction to this incident is to withdraw his presence from the people.   “I will send an angel before you… but I will not go with you” (Exodus 33:2-3).                Moses knew that he has to find a way to re-connect the people to God, so he came up with a plan.   “Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting’. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. A...

                        A news headline this past week read, “Cellphone call limits suggested by Health Canada”.   The story went on to say that, though more study is needed, parents should encourage children to limit the time that they spend talking on their cellphones.   The concern comes from the radiation that cellphones emit and the thinking that it may harm children whose brains, skulls and immune systems are still developing.             In church on Sunday, I asked, “Have any of you done anything differently in light of this warning?”    Interestingly, though most people had seen the story (or others like it), not one person said that they had changed their actions.   Why?                I think it has to do with...

            “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve” (I Corinthians 15:3-5).             Sometimes we are very selective in our reading and teaching of the word of God.   I do not think that we do it intentionally, but it happens.   For instance, think about how we teach the story of the New Testament.   We like both the birth and baptism of Jesus, so they get a lot of attention.   We dissect and dig into the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7).   We love the parables and the miracles of Christ.   We dwell on the cross and its meaning.   Then, something odd happens.   Often (in my experience anyway) in our rush ...

            Harold Hackett, a 58 year old man from Prince Edward Island, has an interesting hobby.   Over the past fifteen years, he has tossed more than 5 000 “messages-in-a-bottle” into the Gulf of the St. Lawrence with hopes that they will make their way to the Atlantic Ocean.   He has since received about 3100 responses from people in places like Iceland, the U.K., the Netherlands, France, Germany, and as far away as Africa and South America.   One bottle even made it to the Pacific Ocean, somehow landing in San Francisco.   Recently, he received a reply from one of the first bottles that he threw overboard.   It took fifteen years for the bottle to wash ashore, to be found and then responded to and that is what makes it interesting to him.   You never know how long it will take or from where you will receive your response.             Up...

With all due respect, there is a huge difference between standing in line at the grocery store and standing in line for a ride at the fair. At the grocery store, the wait is boring. At the fair, you stare at the ride and anticipate what it is going to be like when you get to go on. At the store, the goal is to get through the line as quickly as possible, so you choose your line based on the number of people in it and how many items they are purchasing. At the fair, the length of the line is often irrelevant, because you choose your line based what is at the end (the ride). When you finally do get to the head of the line at the grocery store, there is no fanfare and it is not that interesting. You pay for your stuff and move on. At the fair, the head of the line means all kinds of things such as: excitement, fear, ups and downs, laugher, screams, having your stomach in your throat and "hanging on for the ride". Unfortunately, for too many people, faith is mor...

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). I have always heard that verse applied to either “evangelism”, or “preaching” with the emphasis being placed on the need for “boldness” in both. The idea being that we are not to be scared to share what we believe. That is not a bad lesson to take from this verse, but I do not think it is the only one, or even the most accurate one. What if Paul’s real concern is that Timothy is too timid for his own good? Maybe Timothy is missing out on God’s blessings by being too cautious and not trusting God enough. If that is the case, then this verse takes on a completely new meaning. Consider the context: Paul writes, “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (verse 5). Paul sees in Timothy that same spark, that same faith, that he saw in the rest of his f...

If you had a “Top Fuel Dragster” (one of those really long drag racing cars with the big wing on the back), you could get through our town in a heartbeat. Top fuel dragsters can reach speeds of 333 mph (536 km/h) and finish quarter mile runs in less than 4.5 seconds. Their acceleration is so amazing that they can go from a standstill to 100 mph (160 km/h) in as little as 0.7 seconds. They are absolutely bizarre to watch. As fast as they are, though, you could not drive one to Vancouver. In fact, if you lined one up on 4th street it would not make it to the weigh scales before blowing itself up. An article in “Popular Mechanics”, talking about the forces that these engines withstand, stated that by the time a Top Fuel dragster gets to the end of the quarter mile run, the valves in the engine are literally melting from the heat (if you ever go to a big drag racing event you will see the crews rebuilding the engines after every run). Those engines are designed to run as hard as pos...