A Return to Civility 4: Keep the Sabbath

What a crazy world we live in today. Do you ever feel like the Rabbit in “Alice in Wonderland”? You know the one, he’s always rushing this way and that looking at his watch and muttering, “I’m late, I’m late”. It seems that every hour of every day is filled to the limit with things…

A Return to Civility 3

Recently I was reading an article written by a friend of mine, Mike McNeil. Mike and I are from the same home church, and he taught at Kingswood University for forty years before taking a teaching position with Kings Church in Saint John. Mike writes a column called Soul Apologetics, and this week the article…

A Return to Civilty 2

A couple of weeks ago we began our series “A Return to Civility” and I mentioned how earlier this year I had speculated on what I saw as a loss of civility in our society. We’ve come to a place where we can no longer agree to disagree, and we’ve stopped treating one another with…

A Return to Civility

Earlier this year I was struck by how uncivil our society has become. I can’t remember if it was a personal encounter with someone or something I saw on the news or read on social media. But I do remember thinking: Why can’t we just be civil to each other, what can’t we just be…

Reconstruction: Is the Bible Sexist?

If I were to ask you about the longest recorded conversation that Jesus had in the four gospels who would you say it involved? His best friend, Peter? John the Baptist? The High Priests when they were interrogating him or Pilate during this trial? Wrong on each account. The longest conversation that Jesus is recorded…

Reconstruction: Add Wisdom

If you’ve been with us since the beginning of April, our theme has been Reconstruction, and we’ve been looking at ways to strengthen our faith, and possibly reconstruct our faith, if we’ve been struggling with what we believe and why we believe it. Often, when you talk to people who have walked away from their…

Reconstruction: What is Right

“Who Says it’s right?” Judges 17:6 Begin with a reading from “Through the Looking Glass.” “What a beautiful belt you’ve got on!” Alice suddenly remarked. (They had had quite enough of the subject of age, she thought: and if they really were to take turns in choosing subjects, it was her turn now.) “At least,”…

Reconstruction: Introduction

We’ve all had friends who either never stepped over the line of faith to begin a relationship with Jesus or have started a relationship and then stepped back over that line and walked away from Jesus and the church.We used to say they had backslidden, but there is a new term that folks use these…

The Buts of Easter

Choices were made. That is the reality of life; choices are made. Good choices, bad choices and indifferent choices, but life is determined by the choices we make. And often, we don’t understand the consequences that might come as a result of the choices we make. We are simply living in the moment without concern…