Serving Christ in México
It is the middle of winter in our neck of the woods, and we are rather enjoying it. That’s not to say the temperature hasn’t dropped –it has been a couple of degrees overnight on several occasions. There is no heating in the house so if the sun doesn’t come out it stays a tad chilly inside. But we’ll get through it. And we think often of our frozen friends and family up north.
Continue reading “New Year, New Update”
There is a way to make theology so abstract that it loses all meaning to us. Take for example the essential idea of salvation. We can so easily speak of our salvation without giving much thought to what lies behind it. Within the church we can talk endlessly about salvation and yet fail to think about what we are being saved from, or what we are being saved to. Salvation then becomes a part of our Christian jargon, but it rarely is defined in a tangible, even earthy, way. Of course, this can happen with any number of the creeds and doctrines of the church – they remain floating in the realm of the abstract instead of imbedding themselves deep within the concrete realm of our thinking, actions and imagination.
Continue reading “Siege Works and a Few Strands of Hair”
Christ King,
chose to cast his crown to clay,
condescending as a child in a cradle
clad with common clothes.
Jesus is born! The long-awaited Messiah has arrived and redemption is just around the corner. The hope of humanity has taken the form of an infant child wrapped in shreds of cloths and carefully placed in a feed trough. This is surprising news, but it is good news. And who might be the first to hear of it?
Continue reading “Shepherds and Sages”
So how does one go about learning a new language? Does immersion mean that you slowly soak in the language without too much effort? Perhaps you are wondering what we do all day since we are not doing “real ministry” yet?
Continue reading “How to Spanish.”
Luke begins his Jesus story by introducing us to an old man and an old woman. Zechariah and Elizabeth were faithfully serving God despite many obstacles to faith: barrenness, foreign occupation, national crisis, and the silence of God. It had been hundreds of years since Israel had heard or seen directly from God. In Zechariah’s day there was no glory cloud leading the way or manna falling from heaven. The walls of enemy cities were not crumbling, nor were there armies fleeing at the sight of angels. And there were no prophets bringing a fresh word from God for the contemporary moment. The evidences for God were in the distant past and his promises of an abundant future were beginning to fade from memory.
Continue reading “Doubting Zechariah”
What has Edom to do with us? The nation of Edom is who Obadiah’s prophecy is all about. Edom is evil, and Edom will be eliminated. But what does this ancient message mean for our modern world? Is it hopelessly outdated, or can we find some relevance for our contemporary lives in these age-old words of judgement?
Continue reading “The Ongoing Esau Saga”
For visa purposes, we recently made a trip to México City to visit the Canadian Embassy. We thought it might make for enjoyable reading to recount some experiences from this trip.
Continue reading “A Concrete Jungle, A Park, and A Maze”
Blinded heathen
Broken, bleeding
Barely breathing
Human being
Disbelieving
Root and reason
Eden’s treason
Serpent speaking
Eve is eating
Sin conceiving
Rebel scheming
Glory thieving
World is grieving
Earth is heaving
All are screaming
Desperate, needing
Heaven’s healing
