Trusting God in loneliness
♪Loneliness can be a time of being depressed and feeling sorry for oneself or it can be regarded as a gift from the Lord to get closer to him. So much of life is in the attitude we have.
Heavenly citizenship: living as Christ’s ambassadors in a divided world
♪“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
On not getting things done: a new measure of time
♪ Every Christmas Eve my children look forward to my purple plum torte. Along with roasted turkey and Walter C. Scott’s A Christmas Carol, the simple yellow cake crowned with plums and sprinkled in cinnamon sugar is tradition. Every year the challenge remains the same—in December plums are not grown in northern climes.
How are we connecting
♪ Each Conference Council is an opportunity for delegates to speak—on behalf of their churches about the items on the agenda, and especially after lunch during roundtable discussions. This year the discussion focus was on connecting.
Art and the kingdom
♪ Who created art?
I always begin my lectures with this question. Perhaps you already have an answer in mind. However, the truth is that the question is not so simple to address.
Together with the world
♪ … the Roman empire had perfected the art of conquest. They controlled the vast majority of the known and civilized world, and no nation or group posed any serious threat to their authority. Rome clung to power through military might, rigid bureaucracy, and good old-fashioned fear. But Jesus was subversive; he taught differently on what true power looked like. Instead of power to conquer and dominate, Christ spoke and modelled power to submit and serve.
Intentional acts of compassion
♪ In the last few months, over 90 EMC youth leaders attended one of the Youth Worker Community (YWC) Conferences (sixty-plus in Winnipeg and thirty-plus in Calgary). There were many great workshops on a variety of themes which gave attendees a lot to think about and process: helping students discover and grow spiritual discipline, how to lead teenagers to Christ, managing small groups and making the most of events and experiences, among others.
Predestination is a challenging topic for Christians
♪ In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul reminded the Ephesians that God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4 NET here and throughout). As if his point wasn’t clear enough, Paul in the very next verse adds, “He [God] did this by predestining us to adoption as his legal heirs through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5). This is far from the only time Paul mentions predestination. In Romans 8:29 Paul talks about those who are “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
Remembering Gil Reimer
GILBERT A. REIMER was born in Steinbach on March 31, 1938, to Benjamin L. and Elizabeth Reimer. After visiting his brother Cliff and Diana Reimer, missionaries in Panama under Gospel Missionary Union (now Avant), he applied to GMU to serve in Panama.
Spiritual Direction: The New Ancient Practice
Spiritual direction is a safe place to explore questions and concerns about life with God, including the practice of discernment regarding life’s decisions.
Car Seats, Gluten & Opinionated Bloggers
Never ha the law fallen so hard on me as in motherhood. Never was I more aware that my best wasn’t good enough. If parenting doesn’t drive you to your knees, you’re doing it wrong.
‘In Remembrance of, ME’
The bread and cup. The Lord’s Supper. Communion. It’s an invitation to pause and remember. As we hold the bread and cup in our hands, we remember your life, Jesus, coming to earth as a vulnerable baby who learned to feed himself, to walk, to talk, to cooperate with your parents out of obedience to your Heavenly Father.
Marketplace Ministry
Genesis 2:15 records work as it was meant to be—getting into the soil, dirt under the fingernails, and tending to the animals, all with satisfaction and joy. God, as part of his good and perfect plan for his creation, tasked Adam to “cultivate and tend” the Garden of Eden. Eve was given as a companion and partner in this calling. How glorious! But then comes Genesis 3—the fall—with its resultant “weeds and thistles” and “hard labour.” Work perfectly designed had become work pretty disfigured. Now it seems that creation itself militates against us in our calling to “tend.” And yet, the calling and blessing of work has not changed.
Conference Council: Delegates focus discussion on ‘Four White Pills’ for ministry
Conference Council delegates gathered on November 25, 2023, in a hybrid meeting. While 22 participated on Zoom from various locations across Canada, 92 met in person at Blumenort Community Church (BCC) in Blumenort, Man.
The Four White Pills — Discussion summary.
Discussion summary about “The Four White Pills” — Kid’s Ministry, Men’s Ministry, Biblical Integration, and Genuine Experience.
EMC Ministerial Discusses “WHO’S IN?”
“Who’s IN?” was the provocative title of the EMC Ministerial meeting held on November 24, 2023. The 79 ministerial members assembled at Pansy Chapel spent the day discussing four variations of that question.
Passing The Baton: How faith get passed to the next generation… or not.
I grew up in Winnipeg until I was sixteen years old. I begin with two brief stories of this formative period that are illustrative of the themes we will explore at the 2024 Leadership Conference to be held at Steinbach Bible College on March 15–16.
When the future ain’t what it used to be
Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra once stated, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” When we are young, the world is before us, and the possibilities seem endless. Then, one day, we wake up on what seems to be a normal day, and we realize that most of life is now behind us and the future just ain’t what it used to be.
An unforgettable Christmas
The most unforgettable Christmas for me and my family was Christmas of 1972. Just two and a half months earlier, Hilda and I with our two young sons had made the 5,000-mile trip from Swift Current, Saskatchewan, to the fascinating Republic of Nicaragua, our new home and mission field. We had just settled into a unique house in Jinotepe and were trying hard to befriend our neighbours and learn to communicate in Spanish.