BOB JONES

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.…

Anything worth having is worth waiting for. “Your 100 Day Prayer” is a call to “waiting” on God in prayer. Note: Not waiting FOR God but waiting ON God. The book points out the big difference between the two. Author John Snyder says, "This sustained, stubborn, never-give-up spirit of prayer is not so much to persuade God to give us what we want, but rather to transform us in the process." That’s what waiting ON God will do for you. Isaiah 40:31 says, “…they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Snyder combines the practices of Bible…

I have a love hate relationship with autumn. I love the beauty of the turning leaves. I hate the work of the falling leaves. So I’ll go with love. Autumn is a billion dollar season for tourism in Canada and the US because of the beauty of the leaves. But how quickly autumn passes! It is the perfect parable of all that fades. Yesterday the leaves were beautiful in colour. Tomorrow the rain will fall, the winds will blow, and the trees will be stripped and barren. Autumn reminds me of the value of life’s opportunities — their beauty, but also their brevity. What if you knew there was an opportunity, a God-moment, coming where the choices you make will…

There are so many words that come to mind on a Thanksgiving weekend that centre on gratitude. My favourite is "thanksliving." For me it means making everyday day Thanksgiving...without the turkey and trimmings. Turkey's don't have anything to be thankful for on on this holiday weekend. I remind myself, "Don't be a turkey the rest of the year." Greet the dawn of everyday with gratitude for life. When Steve Jobs was 17 he read a quote that said, "If you live your life like everyday were your last someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression him. In 2005 in his Standford commencement speech, he said, "For the past 33 years have looked in the mirror every morning…

Parenting is leadership. Leaders need courage. “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” Elizabeth Stone, professor at Fordham University Our two sons, Cory and Jean Marc, are the pride and joy of our lives. Jocelyn's and my best decision was to have children and God blessed that decision. Our joy increased when Jean Marc married Angie and they had two daughters, Quinn Marie and Lena Grace. If parenting is a high calling, grandparenting is a high privilege. For almost 35 years, Dr. James Dobson and "family" have gone hand in glove.   Though Jocelyn and I never personally met Dr. Dobson, he was a…

Ten years ago, recovery workers at Ground Zero "were asking for meaning and purpose" during their thankless labour.  Where was God in the midst of the horror?   Two days after the 9/11 attack,  rescue worker Frank Silecchia, found two steel beams in the midst of the wreckage, fused together in the form of a cross.  That cross became a potent symbol of hope for rescue workers dragging bodies and human remains from the rubble.  Rev. Brian Jordan, a Franciscan monk, said, "You saw that cross and you knew that God never abandoned us."  Rich Sheirer, then New York’s director of the Office of Emergency Management and a self-described “short, round Jewish guy,” appreciated the cross. “Intellectually, you knew it’s…

The is the final two of the 17 rules to live by, by Og Mandino. Rule Sixteen... for a Better Way to Live: Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valley you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper. Rule Seventeen: Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and…

This is a continuation of a previous post... Rule Eleven... for a Better Way to Live: Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously. Rule Twelve: Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best that you can do. It does…

Continued from previous post... Rule Six... for a Better Way to Live: Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance. Rule Seven: Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you…