Salvogesis

Thanksgiving in Canada is to a “day of general thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.” When we were on the prairies, this took on a whole new meaning to me. We came to know a little more what was meant by planting season and harvesting season and we could even tell you what kind of combine you were driving based on the colour of the vehicle. Thanksgiving for the harvest was a real part of life.                Today, in the context of what is going on in the world and in the Army, I want to spend a little bit of time chatting about the power of a spirit of thanksgiving in our lives. It really is something that God can use to get us through even the darkest of times. This is what a spirit of thanksgiving looks like:   Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious ...

•          Colossians 3:11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. •          1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. •          Galatians 3:26ff So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.   It is election season again. Is it me or are these things coming around way too frequently these years? It seems like only yesterd...

This week I watched most of the BC Leaders debate with Susan – I wasn’t going to. I don’t really care so much about what the leaders say on TV; I care more about their performance in the legislative assembly. The cynical side of me thinks that they are just guessing what the most popular positions are and then trying to say how good they are at those things while they belittle their opponents. I must say though that I thought this was the least ‘naggy’ and ‘interupty’ leadership debate I have seen in a while. My wife will disagree with me on that. She didn’t care for this debate at all. Myself, I honestly don’t care as much about who the next premier will be as I do about who our next MLA will be as we will inevitably have to work with them around important issues in our community: housing and homelessness, addiction and mental health, etc., so I definitely plan to listen to the debate between Josie, Helen, Graham, and others here.   As far as leaders debates are concerned I am alw...

Leo Tolstoy: Whatever names we dignify ourselves with, whatever uniforms we wear, whatever priests we anoint ourselves before, however many millions we possess, however many guards are stationed along our road, however many policemen guard our wealth, however many so-called criminals, revolutionists, and anarchists we punish, whatever exploits we have performed, whatever states we may have founded, fortresses and towers we may have erected - from Babel to the Eiffel Tower - there are two inevitable conditions of life, confronting all of us, which destroy its whole meaning;(1) death, which may at any moment pounce upon each of us; and (2) the transitoriness of all our works, which so soon pass away and leave no trace. Whatever we may do - found companies, build palaces and monuments, write songs and poems - it is all not for long time. Soon it passes away, leaving no trace. And therefore, however we may conceal it from ourselves, we cannot help seeing that the significance of our life...