There are times when we feel we are under some very dark clouds. They shadow us in gloom and despair.
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These are some reflections on the Church today. Is the local church as we know it what Jesus had in mind?
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Learning From Other CulturesOther cultures as we go to them, or they come to us, have much to teach us in our understanding of the Gospel, and about the rich variety of expression in worship.
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As We Serve, Jesus Builds His ChurchWe can learn from mission overseas, in terms of how missioners have impacted other cultures and people-groups with the Good News.
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The Adventure & Story of MissionThe missional journey is wonderful - AND fraught with danger.
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The Church is a self-correcting Body, continually changing, continually needing to change; continually reforming, continually needing to be reformed.
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When I’m ‘on’ with the Lord, good things come to me. When I’m not; they don’t. I can’t explain it. I couldn’t say it’s normal or biblical, or the way it should be or always is.
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Mark 10:21. Jesus looked at 'the rich young ruler' -- and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
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St. Paul says in effect, in Romans chapter 1, that our believing in God (or our saying that we do or don’t) has a great deal to do with morality.
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With apologies (and thanks) to N.T. Wright (speaking re: his book: ‘The Faithfulness of God’), I am pondering the following – some in his thoughts and words and some in mine:
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One of the early verses that I learned as a small child (at that time in the ubiquitous King James Version) was I Peter 5:8 (which of course comes immediately following verse 7 – ‘casting all your
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Interviewed by Relevant Magazine, author Malcolm Gladwell told of his return to the faith of his childhood.
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Raising the Spiritual Temperature
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Anyone can lose faith, in God or in anything or in anyone that appears to let us down, or not be there, or goes away. Faith is born out of the crucible of doubt, wrote Victor Hugo.
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The church is at heart a people movement of those who are following Jesus.
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"All we can give back and all God wants from any of us," writes Richard Rohr in his book, Falling Upwards: A Spirituality for the Two Halfs of Life, "is to humbly and proudly return the pr
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“For too long we’ve read Scripture with 19th Century eyes and 16th Century questions. It’s time we get back to reading the Scripture with 1st Century eyes and with 21st Century questions.” N.T.
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So, when raking my leaves it feels like I've been learning the meaning of the word ‘eternity.
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Life's autumn falls, dark memories too,
We long to hold the life we knew;
The love, the face we treasured, gone
And death now silences the home.
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It is a rebuke and opportunity for many of us, myself included, that Mother Theresa has said, "I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbour.
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God of the galaxies, great and beyond,
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We have this treasure, writes St. Paul, in earthen vessels . . .
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We have this treasure, writes St. Paul, in earthen vessels . . .
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I suppose there are some obvious ways of hiding God's Word within our hearts, as did the Psalmist. I would think it has to do with:
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It can be a great privilege and delight to be called to minister and serve within the context of a church in a small town or village.
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Canada was once a 'churched' culture. It no longer is that.
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‘If we are not missional, our churches will die?'
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Jesus' apprentices have been called into the almost incredible privilege of being God’s agents of grace, love and mercy, His servants of reconciliation, peace and hope in this world.
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