The Offering often feels like admission to a show but the offering has much deeper theological and cultural roots.

 

For many Christians, Easter is a high holy holiday — it’s the religious bedrock that not only anchors them in their faith, but it also shapes and governs their view of the world. I’m one of them. Easter matters to me.

 

Imagine a seed of your favourite flower, it appears dead.
Take that seed and mentally plant it in rich soil, with adequate water, and plenty of sunlight.
Become aware of the natural energy of the universe, God’s creative power,
the energy of growth that allows this tiny seed to burst forth.
See the roots shooting out in all directions, becoming embedded in the rich dirt around it.

What distracts you from hearing God’s call?  How do these very same things nurture you?  How can you hear God’s call within them?  How do you respond to these challenges?    

Christmas Eve is an important time for children to touch into something deeper than Santa.

Canada Day, which the country observed yesterday, raises all sorts of troubling questions, some of them quite divisive....I want to run with a question about culture today, but it is a bit of a spin off from the usual culture questions that are raised by Canada Day. I want to ask whether the basic message that Jesus preached in fact raises some even more fundamental challenges to the ways culture is celebrated.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." There are probably fewer words in the Scriptures that have had a more profound effect on our common history as the men and women of the Christian faith in that simple phrase: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." 

“Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you? But when the leaves hang trembling, the wind is passing through. Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I. But when the leaves bow down their heads, the Wind is passing by.”

I believe God has instilled in us a craving, a deep desire to run with him on a fantastic adventure, yet many of us crawl along in life without even a glimpse of our hidden passion. There has to be a reason for living. There must be a Camelot, a hidden Utopia where we can rest from our personal campaigns. Fantasy opens our eyes to a better place, a shining city we do not yet know. And these stories provide a mental bridge to that city as we pursue horizons we could never distinguish with our physical eyes. ~ Bryan Davis