UNDERSTANDING WHO IS SHAPING YOUR LIFE?

Who is influencing and shaping your life? Who are the people that are knowingly or unknowingly influencing you? Some of the greatest influences in our lives are family, friends, teachers, media, and people who we respect and embrace what they are telling us. How do we know where we are headed unless we know the …

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A HOPE THAT RESTORES SHATTERED DREAMS

Shattered dreams are difficult to handle. One of the founding members of our church family came to faith in Christ through a very painful experience. She and her husband had just finished building their dream home as they were preparing for retirement, when he arose from breakfast one morning to tell her that he was …

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TRUTH DECAY: THE CONSEQUENCES AND CHALLENGE

Dr. Rufus Fears is a professor of classic history, and he relates that just prior to the end of the Athenian empire at the hands of the Spartans the philosophers and people of Athens had arrived at the idea that there was no absolute truth. This is currently the dominant note of our Postmodern culture. …

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BEING HELD HOSTAGE TO LIES AND THEIR OUTCOMES

The great Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, speaking of his country’s spiritual demise, …’If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty millions of our people, I could not put it more bluntly than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why …

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A LOST GENERATION: WHAT WILL OUR RESPONSE BE?

One of the great temptations in the Christian life is to know what to do and then ignore it. Hypocrisy is always a present danger. We’re not talking about never making mistakes or falling short. Hypocrisy is an attitude of false security and an indifference toward behaving in an ethical and moral manner. Hypocrisy is …

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MAKING OUR WAY TOWARD WHOLENESS

William Wilberforce is primarily remembered as the British Member of Parliament that advanced the cause against slavery, and eventually saw the end to that terrible abuse of humanity. What many may not know is that Wilberforce was a devout Christian. [He] knew the God of the universe as a loving Person who had intervened in …

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LEAVING GLOOMINESS BEHIND AND LIVING IN ANTICIPATED HOPE

Why can’t we get past the quagmire of distress and despair when we are experiencing life’s great disappointments? Where does hope come from? The short answer is God, but why do we so often settle for gloom and doom? For the vast amount of time, the history of Israel and Judah were threatened or subjugated …

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GOD’S RESPONSE TO OUR MOST PAINFUL MOMENTS!

Times of crisis, disappointments, rejection, and various other sorrows invade our lives. They can cause us to ask the question; ‘If God is so loving and good, why this loss, this pain, and struggle in my life? The atheist will answer cynically that it is because there is no God. But the Christmas story is …

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CAN WE EVER BE A FAMILY AGAIN?

One of the most important aspects to life is relationships. They are the most rewarding and difficult aspects of life. We become deeply invested in others, but when there is a breach in the relationship, particularly in our marriage relationship, the question comes to mind: is it possible to start over again? Are there terms …

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CREATED FOR A PURPOSE: God’s Design for Life

Dr. William Moorehead writes at the end of the nineteenth century: It was Jeremiah’s lot to prophesy at a time when all things in Judah were rushing down to the final and mournful catastrophe; when political excitement was at its height; when the worst passions swayed the various parties and the most fatal counsels prevailed. …

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THANKSGIVING: THE HEART OF TRUE WORSHIP

C. S. Lewis reminds us that we cannot ultimately worship apart from others. God calls us into fellowship with other worshipers. The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion; some kind of regular assembly for regular worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted in the Epistles. So we must be regular practising members of …

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“THE SEDUCTION OF DISTORTED IDEAS”

How do we live right in a world gone wrong? Today we are striving to “feel good.” The proper sequence is, “Be good, do good, feel good.”  Feeling good is a byproduct of the right kind of life. We have unfortunately dismissed the importance of being, and doing before feeling. In his book, ‘The Spirit …

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THE FREE FALL OF TRUTH

Thirty years ago, sociologist Reginald Bibby published his book Mosaic Madness, in which he spoke of the challenges facing our country in light of excessive individual rights and relativism. Relativism is the idea that absolute truths doesn’t exist. Canadians deserve to be nominated as ‘champions of choice. …Even if the available options are not what …

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STANDING WHEN EVERYTHING IS SHAKING

STANDING WHEN EVERYTHING IS SHAKING What often trips us up in life’s most challenging moments is not the problems but a wrong perspective of the situation and our own inability to handle things. If anyone understood this as a close follower of Jesus, it was Peter. In his second letter, Peter is conveying something that …

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BEYOND CRISIS MANAGEMENT TO AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

How we respond in times of difficulty reflects how God has truly worked within our lives. In the final chapter of Peter’s first letter, we see what is needed for survival and endurance in the heat of persecution and judgment. What we discover is that the church, as well as any family and nation, cannot …

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TEFLON LIVING IN A MUD-SLINGING WORLD

In his Lives of the Caesars, Suetonius (a Roman writer and secretary to Hadrian) was one of the first pagan writers to mention Christianity. But the context was hardly positive: believers are mentioned only as ‘a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.’ This charge of superstition was perhaps the most serious, …

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CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN OF INJUSTICE

Scaling Mount Everest is a major accomplishment and it takes much preparation and the need for experienced guides to take you through to the top. It is a very dangerous and difficult enterprise and many experienced climbers have lost their lives in the attempt. A record-holding Sherpa climber recently halted his attempt to scale Mount …

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SINGING HER PRAISE: THE QUALITIES OF A WISE LIFE

In the book of Ruth, we have the amazing story of one young woman’s devotion to the God of Israel and her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth leaves her homeland, forsaking family, and the gods of the Moabites to follow Naomi back to the land of Israel. The way she serves Naomi, her mother-in-law, and forsaking all …

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THE COSMIC STRUGGLE: HOPE IN DISTRESSING TIMES

In ‘Rumors Of Another World, Philip Yancey tells of ‘a short story by the Spanish writer Carmen Corde. Corde tells of a young woman who gives birth to a blind son. ‘I do not want my child to know that he is blind!’ she informs family and neighbors, forbidding anyone to use telltale words such …

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WHO’S TO BLAME: A QUESTION OF JUSTICE?

If destroying the greatest good is an expression of the greatest evil, then what happened on ‘Good Friday,’ is the ultimate expression of evil. The question begs to be asked, who is responsible for this evil? In other words, who is to blame? When we look at the crucifixion of Jesus the question naturally arises …

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PEACE REJECTED: THE PAINFUL JOURNEY TO WHOLENESS

A longing for peace and a struggle for freedom is the history of human existence. To think that we can attain both peace and freedom apart from God by attaining self-autonomy will not produce the goal of either peace or freedom. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in ‘Cost of Discipleship,’ related that “The demand for absolute liberty brings …

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FINDING OUR WAY HOME: Finding the path to successful living.

In a time where evil is all around us, the first step in addressing it may be closer to us than we realize. Where can safety and help be found to live a life that gives us success in navigating past many of life’s dangers and pitfalls. Biblical wisdom helps us discover the source and the path toward living successfully in a broken world.

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THE CONTROL ISSUE: THE EFFECTS OF SELF-CONTROL ON OUR SELVES AND OTHERS

Successful and happy people all have one characteristic in common. They are able to control themselves.
Self-control is critical to a person’s well being and their ability to mentor and help others. This aspect of our lives will help us become better parents, employers and mentors of those we are responsible for.

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WHAT’S YOUR PRICE: FINDING THE RIGHT COURSE IN FINANCES AND RELATIONSHIPS.

Some people say that for a certain price people are willing to do things that they might not otherwise consider. This suggests that everybody has a price, but that it may not always be about money. People are willing to make incredible sacrifices for people they value or ideas that are more important to them …

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THE FIRES OF CONFLICT

Wisdom is a social skill that enriches human relationships. With greater means to communicate than ever before, we are struggling with meaningful human relationships. Reckless words are the fuel that ignite powerful social unheaval that affects both people’s livelihood and life. There is a course of action that empowers people in having meaningful relationships.

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MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH

“For the announcement of Jesus’ birth shows that wonderful things come in surprising packages. God does not always do things the way we would do them.”[i] That is an understatement. God often does surprising things and chooses surprising people to accomplish His purposes. Think about the first Christmas season. Rather than take the capital by …

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RELATIONSHIPS IN TIMES OF RESTRICTION

We are living in a challenging moment in the history of our country. Provincially, we had our Premier share that in order to try and curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus, social gatherings are restricted for the next three weeks. So, how can we build healthy relationships which are critical to our spiritual, emotional …

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WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU DANCING TOO?

Will Durant once wrote: “From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.” It’s easier to destroy than to build a meaningful life. The drama of history is played out along the frontiers of great belief systems as they ebb and flow. …The conflict of our day is theism …

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THE WISDOM OF EMBRACING AND LETTING GO

John Wesley grew up in a world of rapid change, very much like ours in some respects and very different in others. The whole way of work was changing in eighteenth-century England. Revolutions in smelting, spinning, and distilling created whole new industries. …Personal health and cleanliness were deplorable. The plague, smallpox, and countless diseases we …

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WISDOM’S IMPACT ON RELATIONSHIPS

While Andrea, my daughter was driving her daughter Ariella to skating practice, she noticed on Monday, many police vehicles in the Village Mall parking lot. Just then she received a distressful call from her close friend, that she wanted our church to pray for one of her friends who had been viciously attacked. This friend’s …

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A Sincere Faith

John Gresham Machen was born on July 28, 1881, in Baltimore, Maryland, the second of three sons born to Arthur and Mary [known as Minnie]. …His parents were committed Christians.  Minnie, with whom Gresham always had a special bond, had an especially significant influence on the boy’s upbringing. It was on her knee that he …

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The Mounting Storm: Tension and Response

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian before and during the Nazi regime in Germany. At first, he scoffed at the idea that Hitler would ever come to power, and then when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Bonhoeffer did all he could to stand up to the evil that the Nazi’s were perpetrating against …

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Wisdom in Chaos: When Life Comes Crashing in!

  “On October 19, 1918; D. W. Sutherland, acting mayor of the city of Kelowna, B. C. created the following public notice: “Notice is hereby given that, in order to prevent the spread of Spanish Influenza, all Schools, public and private, Churches, Theatres, Moving Picture Halls, Pool Rooms and other places of amusement, and Lodge …

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HOW TO BEST REPRESENT THE TRUTH

In a world of contradiction, deception, and destruction we may wonder how to communicate to others what we consider vitally important and critical to the wellbeing of not only ourselves, but also to others. In a world of relativity and cynicism regarding even the idea that truth can be known, we realize that when lies …

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DISCOVERING WHY JESUS IS SO CONTROVERSIAL

In D. A. Carson’s book, ‘Gagging God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism’ relates: The problems of privatization [individualism as the supreme authority], relativism [no moral absolutes], philosophical pluralism [all things are considered of equal value], skepticism [in philosophy, the theory that certain knowledge is impossible to know], postmodernity [denies that objective truth is possible], and ethical “openness” …

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PEOPLE WHO GIVE AFFIRMATION EMPOWER THOSE THEY INFLUENCE

There is something inside each man and each woman that wants to please and be accepted by their father. It’s something that God builds into each of our lives. Some struggle with this issue. Maybe they don’t feel they can ever do enough to please their father and become exasperated trying. Sometimes the start of …

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DISCOVERING YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE AND HOW TO GET THERE

In explaining the dangers of not putting His teachings into practice, Jesus used an analogy of our lives being destroyed by swift raging waters.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the …

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THE COURAGE TO DO THE RIGHT THING IN A DIFFICULT TIME

In the editor’s synopsis of Barbara Tuchman’s book ‘The March of Folly,’ the historical tragedy of folly in the realm of human governance is explained. A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of …

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