By Kevin Wiebe
Any one of us can take a quick look around us and realize that our world is full of conflict, darkness and pain. Beyond that, and perhaps as a result of that, I also believe that we all have a deep ache within our souls that longs for complete peace, for the blissful and eternal reign of God, who will remove all of our suffering and crying and pain. So what are some of the reasons there is such a need for peace in our world? Continue reading Our Profound Need for Peace
By Roddy Hamilton
Create a throne room for yourself here, O Christ,
but let it be the empty seat beside the anxious
the lonely chair next to the confused
the vacant pew next to the hungry
and reign, O Jesus,
as sovereign over the forgotten Continue reading Pastoral Prayer: Reign of Christ
Editor’s Note: This is the condensed version of an interview with Dr. Lissa Wray Beal for the full video and text transcript click the link here.
Have you also had to wrestle through these questions or even wrestle with your faith in God as a result of some of these things that the Old Testament bears witness to?
I would say yes and no to that. I mean because I was so captivated by the love of God and that has always been a pretty firm bedrock for me out of which I have been able to question. So, when I see things that are hard to understand or troubling in the text, I’ve felt I’ve been allowed to question. I think God invites us to question and to wrestle with that. Continue reading Old Testament Violence Condensed Show Notes
Editor’s note: This resource list was part of an interview with Dr. Lissa Wray Beal for the full interview and transcript click here.
Of the many volumes on this topic, this is a sampling from different perspectives. Continue reading Resources for Questions of Divine Violence
By Karla Hein
“The survivors that are left of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem will go a remnant, and survivors out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord will perform this” (2 Kings 19:30–31 NASB).
COVID-19 has slapped humans in the face and left churches fragmented and stunned. One cannot simply blame the illness for our fatigue. The social climate has heated up with many cultural and doctrinal conversations—a deluge of words that can cause confusion and distort the truth. When social restrictions began to relax in my province, people emerged from their homes as if struggling free from a tight-fitting cocoon. Eyes blinking in the bright light and wings still fragile, they considered whom to trust. Continue reading Taking Root and Bearing Fruit
By Layton Friesen
Have you heard of the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral”? That’s a fancy phrase for how John Wesley thought the Bible, reason, experience and tradition should be ordered. In your search for truth, how would you rank those four? Continue reading Good Riddance to the Old Caboose
By Stephanie Unger
Fifteen years after buying an 11-bedroom rooming house in Winnipeg’s Spence neighbourhood, Stephanie, her husband Travis and their kids, Shadrach and Rachel, embarked on a sabbatical. They left Winnipeg, towing their sailboat Schemma down south, and splashed her into the Gulf of Mexico to sail around Florida, across to the Bahamas and managed to return six months later. For details, check out http://www.ungersail.com. This is the third of a series of four articles.
Long days at sea provide lots of time to read. I really love a good story and have been introduced to the world of young adult dystopian novels. This genre of fiction is filled with amazingly gifted, mature teenagers who, through their courage, sacrifice and prowess, save the world. A similar storyline, popular on the big screen these days, is that of the superhero. Young adults find themselves suddenly endowed with unusual ability and are thrown into an epic life-threatening adventure during which they must choose whether to use their power for good or evil. Continue reading Do We Need Another Hero?
by Alan M. Guenther,
Assistant Professor of History,
Briercrest College and Seminary
Christian opinions about the Middle East tend to be polarized. Some see Israel as the homeland for God’s chosen people, the Jews, and the Palestinians as the enemy committed to terrorism and the annihilation of the Israeli state. Others see the Palestinians as refugees who have lost their homes and lands, and the Israelis as the primary oppressors, encroaching on Palestinian territories with illegal settlements and attacking regularly with superior military force. As often happens in cases of such polarized opinions, many other Christians end up in a confused middle space, wondering if there might not be some truth in both positions. Continue reading Palestinians and their history
by Zacharie Klassen
I am a student of historic Christian theologies of Israel and Judaism and the ways those theologies have informed and continue to inform views of the land of Israel, Jewish people, and the practices of Judaism in Christian thought. I am also a member of a long-standing Jewish-Christian text discussion group that meets monthly to discuss texts of importance to the Jewish and Christian traditions. What I offer below is, I hope, a small bit of insight that I have garnered over the last 7 years of study into how Christians should think about our relationships with Jews today given the complicated history of our relationship over the last 2000 years. Given my reflections, I then end with a very brief suggestion for how we might begin to approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Continue reading The Legacy of Supersessionism and Christian Theology Today
