Matthew 5:16 “Make your light shine, so others will see the good you do and will praise your Father in heaven.” Growing up, I was always surrounded by impressive Christians. These persons had such great faith and sense of purpose and I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be able to preach with […]

Coexist –Luke 4:14-19 Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure. He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he […]

What, to the Christian, is Forgiveness? or The Place of Forgiveness in Freedom “And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.” (Luke 23:24) This July, the United State of America, along with 23 other nation states, celebrate their country’s independence. The […]

When I was 16 I decided, along with one of my friends, to spend a day fasting and praying. After dinner on Friday night, we both started. Saturday morning, we borrowed the keys to our church building, stocked up on all our favourite worship cds and barricaded ourselves in so we wouldn’t be distracted by […]

Recently I was assigned to read “Practicing the Presence of God” once again.  When the author writes Brother Lawrence (let’s call him Larry) to tell him of a friend who loses a close friend to death, Larry tells him to advise his friend to use these moments to his advantage.  “What a great opportunity to […]

Recently I”ve been thinking about the term young adult. What does it mean to be a young adult? And specifically what does it mean to be a young adult in the church? We use the term often in regards to ministry and I”m sure most people have a fairly clear idea what they mean by […]

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35 These days the words “change the world” are very popular here in the […]

In the room where I live, I have one of those modern maps where the cartographers have adjusted the proportions of the countries to represent their true geographic regions. It is pretty interesting to study. The United States is not quite as large as it appeared on the maps I had as a child. The […]

Pentecost: Equipping and Empowering the People of God for Service It is not uncommon to ask someone, “Why do you celebrate [insert your favorite holiday]?” or “Why do you do [insert ritual] at your church?” and be met with the remiss response, “I don’t know. I just do. We have always done it this way.”  […]