This week is Pride Week in Toronto. “Pride Week celebrates our diverse sexual and gender identities, histories, cultures, creativities, families, friends and lives. It includes a three-day street festival with over eight stages of live entertainment, an extensive street fair (including community booths, vendors, food stalls), a special Family Pride program, a politically charged Dyke…
thinking about worship
Looking for some feedback on the experience of corporate worship. When you come into a gathering of Jesus-followers, what is it that you are hoping to experience? The other question is, when non-church-attenders show up, what do you think they are hoping to experience? Is it true, do most people today want upbeat, contemporary, soft…
a pure heart?
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 17 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: And I–in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness. [Psalm 17:15] At first glance, this psalm seems presumptuous – though you test me, You will find nothing? It sounds as if David is claiming total innocence. But this psalm has a context: David…
in Your presence
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 15/Psalm 16 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? [Psalm 15:1] The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. [Psalm 16:4]. The question is not ‘who is allowed to” be close to God in His presence (sanctuary, holy hill). The question is rather who can endure…
but
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 13/Psalm 14 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? … But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me. [Psalm 13:2,5-6]…
thinking about prayer
I was thinking about prayer, and I wrote some of my thoughts down. What other statements would you add to help expand or improve this list? I am looking for simple statements, not lengthy paragraphs. Prayer is simply talking with God, both listening and responding. Prayer is only meaningful as part of a personal relationship…
He is still in charge!
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 11/Psalm 12 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face. [Psalm 11:7] God is just, He will bring about justice. But sometimes this is hard to believe when things look so bleak. When society’s foundations are being dismantled, when there seem so few people concerned about justice and truth…
I’m greater than Moses?
SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 34 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt–to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. [Deuteronomy 34:10-11]. According to whoever wrote this, Moses was…
everlasting arms
SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 33 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. [Deuteronomy 33:27] Moses sings a blessing over each of the tribes, a positive, encouraging prayer of blessing. At the end He paints a word picture of God as a refuge, a safe place, supported by the everlasting arms of God. The…
willing?
SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 32 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them…