This was a quote I heard recently in a Christmas production. The point of the production wasn’t related to this quote at all, but somehow it stood out and deeply impacted me. Imagine for a moment that your family – whether that be wife or kids or parents etc… – are in danger. A known killer has broken into your home and is holding them at gunpoint while you…
Jesus
Rethinking “Family” This Christmas Season
Rethinking “Family” This Christmas Season For most of us, when we think of Christmas, we think of family. When I was growing up I remember looking forward to the break, but even better was the opportunity to be with family. Sometimes we would drive to Toronto (from Windsor) to spend time with my cousins. This actually became even more prominent when I left for university and would come home…
I Wish I Had Carried Jesus’ Cross
Yesterday was Good Friday, and our family tradition is to watch “The Passion” movie to remember what Jesus went through for us. Someone in particular caught my attention in a whole different way this year. Simon the Cyrene. As I watched him I almost wished I could have carried Jesus’ cross. I was thinking about how powerful it must have been for Simon the Cyrene. Let me be more specific….
Porn – God’s reminder of our need for Him in a Culture of Self Sufficiency
Have you ever noticed or considered the reality that, in our North American culture, we don’t really have a tangible need for God? Historically, the church thrives in countries where there is life-threatening persecution. The thought of losing our lives for the sake of Jesus is, foreign if not entirely unthinkable to us here. The North American dream is to work hard and become rich, the perfect equation…
4 Ways to Swing Your Kids Towards Jesus
Have you ever seen those pictures with kids swinging? Not the ones where they are on an actual swing, the ones where they are holding their parents’ hands and being swung in a circle. The look of pure joy on their face is incomparable. The smile is without reservation and joy exudes from every pore of their body. I love those pictures. They make me smile and bring happiness to…
4 Ways to Gauge the Growth of Your Relationship With Jesus
“I don’t feel close to God. I don’t feel like I’ve grown closer to God in a long time.” I know I’ve thought this, and even more so heard this from person after person in my life, and why not? How else are we supposed to determine growth? It’s a mystery. Spirituality is abstract in the first place. How can we quantify something and its growth without a concrete concept…
3 Reasons Following Jesus Isn’t an “Amazing Race”
Following Jesus is the Farthest thing from an “Amazing Race” More and more people I meet and interact with about their spiritual life echo a similar feeling, a regular and even constant sense of “running” or “never living up” to their concept of what faith is. Expectations on themselves have come from any number of places, but the common sentiment seems to be one of exhaustion and even a questioning…