The Father himself loves you

My father was a man with high principles and good intentions, but a short fuse. And when he blew up, he would stay angry for days while my mother and I tip-toed around to avoid further aggravating him. He was never physically violent, but the verbal abuse was just as damaging. It happened again one … Continue reading The Father himself loves you

God with us

If the resurrected Christ is not a living reality for us, we are proclaiming a false gospel, for the Good News that we proclaim is not dead news, nor tired news, nor even old news. It is living news (God-with-us news), the exciting personal news that the Jesus who came as a babe to Bethlehem … Continue reading God with us

The Father himself loveth you

Who do we pray to? And in whose name? I often hear people begin their prayers with "Our Father," "Dear Lord," or "Dear Jesus," and then end  with "in thy name."   Whose name do they mean? This practice, by the way, is not limited to members of any particular denomination. Hitherto have ye asked nothing … Continue reading The Father himself loveth you

Joy to the world

The gospel is good news for all mankind. How is it then that so many of us make it sound like bad news? Of course the gospel is unmitigated bad news for those who reject it. Jesus did not try to soft peddle that part of the message; in fact, He spoke of hell a … Continue reading Joy to the world

Living faith

It appears that many Muslims in Syria and Iraq are beginning to realize that the Wahabi branch of Islam is not their friend. As long as Wahabi-inspired terrorism seemed to be mainly directed at Jews, Christians, and Western civilization in general, they could cheer for supposed Islamic victories and overlook attacks against other Muslims. But … Continue reading Living faith

What people need from a church

There are three things that every human being needs, and the Christian church is the only institution on earth with the potential to meet those needs. First, there is a longing in the heart of every man, woman and child to understand the meaning of life and their place in it. People who reject God … Continue reading What people need from a church

I dreamed there was no God

[From an out of print book, When I Was Thirteen by Christina Young. I first posted this in March of 2013, and thought it worth posting again as it seems to me that far too many people today are living in just such a nightmare and do not know that it would be possible to … Continue reading I dreamed there was no God

The threefold purpose of the church

As I see it, there is a threefold purpose for the existence of the church of God. Each of these purposes is connected to and dependent upon the other two. Perhaps we could call this a three-legged stool and whenever one of the legs is shorter than the others it creates an unstable situation. The … Continue reading The threefold purpose of the church

Dying with dignity

The Supreme Court of Canada is currently considering the question of assisted suicide, or what some people call the right to die with dignity. This has brought back to my mind something that happened many years ago. This account would not have any significance to the legal minds who are arguing before the Supreme Court, … Continue reading Dying with dignity

Pookie come home

Pookie wasn't here to greet me when I came home Tuesday evening after taking my wife to the airport. Pookie,a little flame point Siamese, showed up on our doorstep two years ago in fall, a feral kitten looking for a home. We didn't need a third cat, but pretty soon he had captured our affection … Continue reading Pookie come home