Many people see the start of a New Year as a fresh start. It is a time where many people set goals for what they would like to see or achieve in the next 12 months. For some, it is a time to stroke off some more items on their bucket list. For others it is a chance to wipe away the bad habits of the previous year and start off with new healthy habits. Like, getting into a shape that is not round. No more eating unhealthy fatty foods and no more snacking after 7pm, ok 8pm, let’s make it 9pm so it’s achievable.

Christmas is probably my most favourite time of year. For many people Christmas includes decorations, eating lots of turkey, many different gatherings with family and friends, eating more turkey, drinking hot chocolate, gift-giving/receiving and eating turkey leftovers. It is rightfully seen as a time of celebration, hope and cheer as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

In our world today it is hard to find a moment when something is not being sold to us. When you are on the internet there are ads either on the side or popping up trying to sell you a blender, a vacation, or some new diet fad. When you ride the subway, bus or even driving in a car you see giant billboards advertising all matter of things such as where to eat or which car to purchase.

After teaching the truth of their death, burial and resurrection with Christ I am often asked by people why they never heard this truth before. And for some, the answer is they have, it just has never received the proper attention and explanation that it deserves.

Context makes such a difference. Without a proper understanding of the context of a situation it is hard to draw the proper conclusions. For example, what conclusion do you draw from a situation where a man is holding a knife to another man’s throat? Is it a safe situation or a dangerous one?

If you were to listen to Oprah, Dr Phil or many of the other personal growth guru’s, they would tell you that the answer to all you need for a life of contentment and satisfaction is in YOU. The emphasis being the YOU part. If YOU work harder, if YOU change your thinking, if YOU eat well, if YOU get enough sleep, if YOU exercise, if YOU treat others properly…then YOU will find satisfaction in this life.

I continue to be amazed at the thought that Jesus, God Himself, came to earth and lived as a man. He was God, is God and always will be God, but while on earth He did not live as some superhero named “God-man” where He lived as God dressed up as a man. But He lived simply as a man, trusting His Father (not Himself) to be God in Him.

For many Christians this is a terrifying thought as their mind immediately goes to all their sins being projected onto a giant movie screen for all of Heaven to see. And while they are publicly humiliated, Jesus is either weeping or shaking His head with a disapproving, disappointing look on His face. Doesn’t that sound exciting.

Have you ever had the experience of reaching into your coat pocket and discovering a $20 bill in there that you did not know was there? Just imagine what is was like almost 500 years ago when Martin Luther rediscovered something even better, the good news of the gospel, justification by faith apart from works. This was a radical thought at the time since most people accepted the idea that your acceptance before God was based on your works.

The parable of the four soils is one of the more popular teachings of Jesus. It is found in three of the four gospels and is one of the few parables that Jesus interprets Himself. Jesus tells us that the soil is a picture of the heart of four different individuals and their response to the seed, which is the word of God, namely the gospel. In other words, Jesus shows us four different responses to faith in Him.

This weekend we will celebrate the greatest victory that the world has ever seen, the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the work of the cross that is central to our faith, for it was nearly 2000 years ago that you and I were forgiven, made righteous and set free from sin, the Law, and the world. All because Jesus Christ died a death that He did not deserve, and was raised up from the grave by His Father.

This past week in our study on the book of Galatians we were looking at chapter 3 and Paul’s six arguments why we as Christians are now to live by faith in Christ and no longer under or by the law, rules or even principles. I found it so good, I had to share it with you.

I found this today and it is so good I had to share it. It is a quote from a message given by a man named A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance church who lived in the late 19th century and early 20th. Here is what he had to say about our pursuit of Jesus.

I trust that you enjoyed your Christmas as much as Wiarda and I did, as we celebrated with family the birth of our Saviour, Lord and Life. Much of our time thinking about the story of Christmas is often spent on the events leading up to the birth of Jesus. The scandal of an unmarried teenage virgin giving birth in a stable surrounded by animals and shepherds is a story that never gets old. But have you ever thought about what life was like for Jesus after that?

I are engineer. That means, as you can see, the English language is a mystery to me much like women are, I live with five of them, but I still don’t understand them. With the English language, I have known it all my life, but I can still only use it in an almost passable grade 5 sort of way. I simply do not have a great understanding of the language.

Two weeks ago my six month old son went for some tests to determine if his kidney was improving or getting worse. In case you have not heard, while he was still in Wiarda’s womb they discovered a problem with his left kidney and ureter (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder). It was nothing too alarming and apparently not an uncommon problem with boys. So they have been monitoring it since he was born as 90% of these cases tend to fix themselves over the course of their first year.

Let’s play a game. I am going to ask you a question and I want you to answer it as quickly as possible. (Don’t worry it’s not a skill testing question nor does it involve any math!) Ready? Here it is…

From my experience in helping people, many Christians have only a partial understanding of what it means and how to forgive another person. The result is they only experience a partial understanding of Jesus’ healing work done at the cross.

Just a couple of weeks ago we were given the opportunity to see something that has never happened before – a man walked across the Niagara Falls on a high-wire, and not the small falls that our American friends have, but the large beautiful Horseshoe falls in Canada.

Recently I have been reading the writings from some of our early church fathers. These were the leaders of the church in the second and third century. Some were only a generation or two removed from Jesus and His disciples. In particular I have been reading the letters of Iraeneous, who was the Bishop of Lyons towards the end of the second century. Some reports say that as a young boy he was a disciple of a man named Polycarp who was a direct disciple of the apostle John.