We live in a world of rapid change in terms of technological advancement.  Vinyls and eight-tracks seem, to me, like fragments of dreams from a world long past, but I’m old enough to remember and still own a number of audio cassettes. Audio cassettes and portable Walkman devices gave way to CDs and Discmans (Discmen?), of course, and now iPods and MP3 files are in the process of making even CDs obsolete.  In fact, it probably already happened without anyone bothering to tell me. Televisions keep getting bigger and bigger.  Cell phones keep getting smaller and smaller.  If there’s a way to … Continue reading →

There are few things that bother me to the point of causing me to actually lose sleep.  The casual use of expletives and swearwords by Christians is one of those things.  Anyone who knows me well knows that it’s something that has bothered me for a while.  I don’t intend for this to be a long post, nor a particularly angry one; I simply intend to state clearly (and Biblically) that Christians – particularly those in public or authoritative positions – who actively decide to use profanity in online forums are doing critical harm to the gospel message and should … Continue reading →

I wrote this paper in a course on the Gospel of John in my third year of University; I’m posting it here for the benefit of my Youth Class as with whom I will be studying John chapters 3 and 4 over the next two Sunday mornings. Give it a read. A Pharisee, a ruler of the Jewish people, ventured out by night hoping to find audience with a certain rabbinic teacher; what he found was a teaching far beyond his limited understanding.  A Samaritan woman left her home by the light of day to draw water from Jacob’s well; what … Continue reading →

Every day we make choices.  Doing your homework is a good choice.  Studying for a test is a good choice.  Eating a healthy breakfast is a good choice. Sometimes society or the government try to help us make good choices. For example, most people agree that smoking is a bad health choice.  So in order to help with good choices, some governments have ordered cigarette companies to make packaging less attractive to teens.  Many places have banned smoking so people have fewer places in which to smoke and therefore ideally less time to smoke. The idea is to help people make … Continue reading →

It made me feel physically sick to my stomach.   It was probably this spring, though it could have been earlier.  After leaving the kids program at my church one Monday night I got into my car with my wife, my daughter and a friend.  As I drove to my friend’s house to drop him off, we carried on our typical conversation about science fiction and superheroes – you know, all the good stuff.  Turning onto Eglinton, I saw the billboard in question. Like I said, it made me sick. SHIRT ON: OMG. SHIRT OFF: OMFG. It was a Virgin … Continue reading →

Sometimes I think about the sweet deal Adam and Eve had in the garden of Eden.  God made man, then planted an incredible garden just for him to live in!  Read it: Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. – Genesis 2:8-9 It … Continue reading →

I love listening to Rush.  Sam Roberts.  Sloan. I thought I’d preface this post on “Christian Music” by letting you know that I also really like “secular music.” Those are terrible terms, and I don’t want to use them at any length.  I don’t have “Christian friends” and “secular friends”; I have friends, and some of them need to know Jesus. None of Sam Roberts’ songs need to know Jesus, and none of dc Talk’s songs do know Jesus.  That said, songs do promote values, messages, and lifestyles, and so we need to be careful about what we’re listening to. The Jesus Movement took … Continue reading →

“It doesn’t matter what you believe in as long as you believe in something.”  I’ve heard far too many people say these naïve, thoughtless, completely ridiculous words.  Think about that for a minute.  What they’re saying is that what matters is that you believe, not what you believe.  When my brother was a kid he jumped into a lake without any sort of flotation device.  He believed something; he believed he could swim.  And if I hadn’t been there to fish him out he and his belief would be sitting at the bottom of the lake today. Then there are people who believe in … Continue reading →