We're Goin' Country

Invite your friends to join us for a good ol' Country Gospel Service this Sunday, Nov 30 at 10:00 a.m. We welcome the Chalmers Country Gospel Band to the service. So polish up those buckles and boots, and we'll see ya there!

...a game of world domination

The Group of 20 world economic powers gathered in Washington last weekend. "The world is on the cusp of the most profound shift in global power and influence in a century," reads an article in the KW Record. Sounds like the board game, Risk - a game of world domination. Judah played that same game in the 7th century BC. Their strategy was flawed because they failed to consult the greatest strategist of all time: God. God has a strategy for world domination, it's wonderful counsel, wonderful strategy. Join us this Sunday for our first advent message (yes, a week early) as we celebrate the wonderful counsel (Is 28:29) of our Wonderful Counsellor (Is 9:6).

Everything Changes

When a child is adopted into a new family, he/she is almost always leaving behind a life of sadness. When you become a child of God, you too, leave behind a life of hopelessness, despair, sadness, uncertainty. Everything changes. The spiritual blessings that are now ours are like adoptive blessings. Yes, everything changes. Join us this Sunday, 10 a.m., as we hear this message from Ephesians 1:1-14. The message concludes with Stephen Curtis Chapman's song, "When Love Takes You In."

Books I've recently read

"Leisure reading" -- it's the kind of reading you do when you want to relax, the books you read simply because you enjoy reading. I read "Lullabies for Little Criminals" (Heather O'Neill) and "Atonement" (Ian McEwan)for leisure, but neither of these novels would classify as bedtime stories. "Lullabies" tells the story of 13 year-old Baby, living in the red-light district of Montreal. Still a child playing with dolls, her young life is enmeshed in the harsh realities of the drug culture. The story is the more poignant because at the end of the novel we find a profile of the author - and we suspect that this is ultimately not a novel, but the story of hundreds of young children who are born into a world we cannot imagine. Baby's salvation, her rescue, comes only when she is extracted from the world she knows. She receives grace - total, unexpected, undeserved, unimagined.

The back cover of "Atonement" says this: "the book has at its centre a profound exploration of shame and forgiveness, of atonement and the difficulty of absolution." I found myself incensed at the injustice of Robbie's conviction -- and I wondered: are we enraged in the same way when we reflect on another trial, another conviction, another injustice- that of Jesus Christ? Atonement, in the novel, is sought after, pursued for a lifetime, yet is unattainable. If you read the book, or see the movie, allow yourself to explore the concept of atonement and the difficulty of absolution.

Foolishness or the Power of God?

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?" Good questions. In this age of uncertainty, where do we turn? Join us this Sunday, Nov 9 for "Foolish, Offensive, or the Power of God," a message from I Corinthians 1:23,24. Bob Damsma leads the service while I am in Guelph.

Addison's baptism

Last Sunday we celebrated the baptism of Addison Alyssa Drost, baby daughter of Jeff & Stephanie. In the sacrament, God put his mark on Addison as his covenant child - he promises to be her God and she will be his child. We praise and thank God for his gift of life - the life of a new baby and eternal life through Jesus' blood. [Addison handled it all rather calmly - she is sooo beautiful!]