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Your beliefs play a determining role in how you view life.  Your mind uses your beliefs to create your personal view of the real world. Wherever you are, its your beliefs that have gotten you there. Children, have beliefs impressed on them that are quotable, but not necessarily livable. For instance... · "Chocolate milk comes from brown cows." · "If you swallow a seed, a plant will grow inside you." · "If you swallow chewing gum it will stay in your stomach for 7 years." · "Ice cream vans only play music when they've run out of ice cream." We can be attracted to a belief because of its sheer beauty. Some beliefs are attractive because they appear to unify…

Early Monday morning, January 9th, the top item on Google Trends hot searches was John 3 16. Why? Because Tim Tebow, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, passed for 316 yards in an overtime, NFL playoff upset of the Pittsburg Steelers,the day before. 316 is the number Tebow wrote on his eyeblack when he played in the NCAA. 3:16 is also the numbers on signs held up in football endzones across the nation for years. Tebow has been outspoken about "his Lord and Saviour" - the God who so loved the world, spoken of in John 3:16. Coincidental? Providential? If nothing else, its got to bring a smile to your face to think about how so many millions of people are…

I generally like Len Sweet’s writings. His prose is poetic, practical and probing. Sweet’s books are so rich you can open to any page and find a nugget of insight. Perhaps my expectations of “I Am a Follower” were too high which is why it left me feeling disappointed. Perusing the back page summary would have alerted me to his agenda. It suggests that Sweet will “take us on a journey from leadership cult to followership culture.” Sweet takes aim at what he calls the “corporate-obsessed-culture” of the Church. In so doing he endorses a definition of leadership that no leaders I know would ever model in deed or attitude. Leadership is “trying to get everyone else to do what…

Go, Canada, Go! I hope you'll take in some of the World Junior Hockey Championship this year. When you do, watch for #8 - Jaden Schwartz. If you remember the Schwartz name, its because we prayed frequently at North Pointe for his sister Mandi this year as she battled leukemia. Mandi was a hockey teammate to Jennifer Matichuk from NP, at Yale. Mandi passed away on April 3rd. “She’s on my mind every day,” Jaden said last Saturday. “You can’t stop thinking about her. She was there for me so much. She inspires me every day still. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about her." “Everything I do is for her.” As students at Notre Dame College…

God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; the warmth of Christmas, which is love; the radiance of Christmas, which is purity; the belief in Christmas, which is truth; the all of Christmas, which is Christ. Merry Christmas!

A post from Cindy Keating Glubish December 19, 2011 - 7:32 a.m – I woke up this morning singing “…On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree…”. I have no idea why. And much like the hiccups, the song kept creeping back ALL..DAY...LONG. To be honest, I have always found this song to be annoying. No disrespect to Frederic Austin, but I just find it rather… blah. There’s not much syncopation, there’s definitely no dissonance, and the lyrics are… well…they’re rather repetitive (stating the obvious I know). In my everyday life I hear “Mommy, mommy, mommy, MOMMY!!!!!” 50 million times a day, so to ALSO have “and a parrrrtridge in…

My father loved golfing. Every Saturday he would be up with the birds and hoping to shoot a few birdies. When I was born my parents named me "Robert" or "Bobby" as in Bobby Jones, one of world's greatest golfers. My dad bought me a set of Bobby Jones Jr golf clubs but they sat in the garage most of my life. Bobby was only five years old when he first swung a golf club. By the age of twelve, he was winning club tournaments. During this time, he was known for his hot temper, and he soon had the nickname “Club Thrower.” Jones became friends with a man named Grandpa Bart, who worked part-time in the club pro shop.…

This Sunday past, we talked about crisis. We've all faced them. A health crisis, a career crisis, a marriage crisis, a crisis of confidence, a mid-life crisis, a financial crisis, a family crisis, a crisis of faith. Its in crisis that Christ can best be heard. "God whispers in our pleasure but shouts in our pain," is how CS Lewis described it. Every crisis will present an opportunity. The lowest period IN your life can lead to the highest purpose FOR your life. The strength that Jesus gives in the midst of crisis can create an opportunity to experience remarkable courage to live life. 2 Timothy 4:16,17 illustrates this so well - "At my first defense, no one came to…

My story is about my need to be accepted and about how accepting God's grace has allowed me to be free. Growing up, I was into many activities, but figure skating was my passion. Today, I am a professional figure skating and power skating coach with the St. Albert Skating Centre. I love nurturing young athletes to help them tap into their true potential. I only had the pleasure of competing for a few years, but I was fortunate to meet and compete against many great people, including the most recent Olympic champions, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. My skating career came to an early and sudden end. Many factors produced this outcome. I had lived for figure skating! To…

I first met Simon Peter Emiau in 1988. I was leading a missions team to Uganda and teaching in a Bible College in Umbale, Uganda. Simon Peter was the director of the school. He and his wife invited me to their home for lunch, a kindness I have long remembered. He told me how he had been a thief, hiding in the bushes and ambushing unsuspecting travelers. Then he was introduced to Jesus and his life changed. He turned from robbing to giving. As the director of the school he had opportunity to influence future pastors. He eventually became the General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Uganda. Today he is a well respected leader throughout the continent of Africa.…