Living Stones Church, Red Deer, Alberta

The first Christmas did not happen in a vacuum. We do not understand the need for the Christmas story simply from the birth of Christ.  We need to go to the beginning of the human story to really understand why God, in the person of Jesus Christ, had to come to earth. What necessitated the need for God to become a Man, live a sinless life and die a cruel death? The Bible states that we, ...

Years ago, when Patty and I first came to Red Deer with our newborn daughter, Andrea, the church was in its earliest beginnings. That was over 41 years ago. After witnessing the church's amazing growth over 10 years, we resigned and moved to Seattle, Washington. Three years later, we were confronted with a very agonizing and significant decision that affected not only our lives but also ...

The context for C. S. Lewis’ book, “Mere Christianity,” was drawn from a series of wartime BBC broadcasts on the Christian faith in which he spoke on the problems of suffering, pain, and evil from 1942 to 1944. You can then imagine when, in one broadcast, Lewis spoke on the issue of forgiveness. The book was published ten years later, in 1952. During WW2, 800,000 Londoners lost their hom...

We should never be surprised when our good intentions are misconstrued and cast in a negative light. We can also expect that in serving others, there will come moments of misunderstanding and unwarranted criticism. In teaching a course on Nehemiah, I was reminded of this very thing. Nehemiah was confronted by those opposed to God’s purposes for His people.

When Sanballat the Horonite and...

Rick Warren, former pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Southern California, shared the tragic death of his son, Matthew and his struggle with depression that led to his ‘suicide.’ Rick related that Matthew struggled with this his entire life, even though they sought extensive treatment, counselling, and prayer over the years. He shared that he continued to believe God for a miracle...

As we come to the close of the book of James, we see that James has been speaking to believers who were experiencing ‘trials of many kinds (1:2).’ In the closing chapter, we see the abuse and exploitation of the poor by the rich. James speaks of developing an attitude of patience in their suffering by encouraging them that God will address all injustice, if not in one’s life, then at the...

In D. A. Carson’s book, How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil, he begins, “A pastor is cutting his front lawn. He looks up from his task just in time to see a heavy dump truck back out of his neighbour’s driveway—right over the neighbour’s eighteen-month-old son, who had been squatting behind the massive tires. The pastor accompanies the hysterical mother and ashen father ...

One of the concerns for people as they age is whether they will have enough finances in their retirement years. Financial planners all have different gauges to determine how much is enough, but maybe we are not thinking far enough about our future. How will God evaluate our financial portfolio? How will that impact our lives in eternity?

If financial planning is part of our eternal plan,...

“Unwell, and much in prayer, he heard a voice saying, ‘In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise, and believe, and thou shalt be healed of all thy infirmities.’ It was, in fact, the voice of [a woman] who had felt herself commanded in a dream to say these words. Charles got out of bed and, opening his Bible, read from the Psalms: ‘He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our Go...

Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? For most people, it is simply about snatching moments of pleasure, trying to find happiness or meaning in various pursuits or relationships. Yet, there is a longing within the human heart for understanding, to be loved, and to find meaning and purpose in life.

If we are simply a cosmic accident, then life is reduced to surviving and trying t...

“In a certain pond on one of the farms in the East were two ducks and a frog. Now, these neighbours were the best of friends; all day long, they would play together. But as the hot summer days came, the pond began to dry up, and soon there was so little water that they all realized that they would have to move. Now the ducks could easily fly to another place, but what about their friend,...

In one of William Shakespeare’s great tragedies, Othello, one of the soldiers under his command, a man by the name of Iago, motivated by a wounded sense of injustice and jealous of his commander, plots to destroy Othello. He creates a misrepresentation that appears that Othello’s wife, Desdemona, is having an affair with another man under Othello’s command. While framing this innocent wi...

The hunger for freedom from oppression will drive people to rise in revolt against their oppressors. That has been the history of humanity over the centuries. We know that the Jewish people revolted militarily from Rome not once but twice. It was during the second revolt in 132-135 A. D., the Roman Emperor, Hadrian killed 580,000 Jews, destroyed 985 villages, forbid the Jewish people to ...