Heavenly Father, We come to you with hearts full of thankfulness. Thank you that you love us no matter what; nothing can separate us from your abundant love. Thank you that when we are weak, you are strong. Thank you that you care about all the details of our lives, even the smallest things matter to you. Thank you for your constant presence as you walk with us moment by moment, day by day. We
Father, Each morning, I wait for my classroom of bustling students to arrive. As they enter the hallway, I listen. And so their stories are told. In their words and by their actions, I am reminded daily of the battles your children face. One where they struggle to accept their differences as beauty. One where their own communities refuse to accept their unique quirks and gifts as valuable. I hear it in the way they
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:31 Neighbourhoods Take a moment to think about where you live. Your neighbourhood. Take a look outside and look at your street. Maybe you know your neighbours by name or you just know their faces or maybe you don’t know them at all. Take a moment and pray for them. When we pray for those that we may
It is a wonderful assurance we have that we belong – we belong to God. Not because of anything we have done, but because in love God Godself has brought us near. It is by God’s own work of grace through which God has destroyed all that has made us outsiders and brought us into relationship and fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A recent message of Dr. Stone’s was on the passage in
Week of Prayer is one of my favourite things that we do together as a church. I love picking a time slot where I know I can set aside whatever I'm doing to pick a quiet spot in the house, put on some peaceful music, light a candle or two and spend time with God. It's a time where I can re-evaluate where I am at with God and where I'd like to be. This
December, despite the best of intentions, can seem like a mad rush. As hard as we try to remember the “reason for the season,” to keep Christ in Christmas, it seems the month always flies by like a dash to the finish line of some hare-brained race of socializing, eating and celebrating. Before we know it, Christmas is in the rear-view mirror, we are packing up the decorations and about to embark on a new
When Dag Hammarskjold, the Secretary-General of the UN, was killed in a plane crash in Africa in 1961, the two books found in his briefcase were the Bible and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. Even though Thomas à Kempis was a monk in the 14th century, much of what he said can still apply to us today. I appreciate Kempis’ honesty. The central task of our lives should be to learn to
This past Sunday, Mike Stone reminded the congregation that it was “International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church”. A day in which we are to be reminded of the cruelty that Christians in other parts of the world go through because of they believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins. These men and women face imprisonment, torture and death because of their beliefs, and yet they stand steadfast and look towards Jesus for
I’ve always felt a strong connection to God through anything living. Be it a plant, animal, or a friend, I see the beauty, the love and the likeness of God in these things. To me, creation is all that God has created: space, sky, and anything living here on Earth. I see it as our responsibility as humans, made in God’s own image, to take care of these creatures and living beings that may need
