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No Satanas Concert (Mark 2:1-3:35, John 8:1-11).

  (Redacted)   The passage that we are looking at in Mark today asks, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan’ (Mark 3:23)? The Greek word for ’satan’, ‘satanas’ literally means ‘accuser’. [i]  The question being asked directly here is how can accuser cast out accuser? It reminds me of Jesus addressing Peter when he says, Get thee behind me accuser! (Matthew 16:23)   It also reminds me of Job where, ‘satan’ (literally ‘opponent’, ‘adversary’; pronounced: saw-tawn) the Hebrew equivalent of ‘satanas’ is used. In the case of Job, God baits the accuser. He tells the accuser how good Job is, knowing full well that he would accuse him of only being good because God does so many good things for him. The whole story of great suffering, perseverance, and more unfolds from there.   The main name we think of when we think of ‘the devil’ is Satan (satan, satanas), accuser. This is important. I suggest that it is because his main attribute, almost his defining characteristic, is that he is one who accuses ot
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Math Skills! (Luke 9)

As this is camp day, I have a camp story. This one is from a men’s camp we went to on the prairies years ago..   We men, as you know, can think of ourselves as fairly organized and when I was in teacher-training many years ago we learned that while women are generally more skilled at the creative side of things men have a much higher aptitude for math and such. So here is a math question for you. If you start off with 1 Officer and 5 other men from one town and you add 1 Officer and 4 other men from another town, how many men do you have? (11)   Good. Now if you subtract 1 person from the second town (who will get off the bus in Saskatoon) and add 1 person from the first town (Who will get on the bus in Saskatoon) how many men should we have on our bus as we leave men’s camp? (The one person we are going to add in Saskatoon is ‘David’, he is Major Ed’s son) How many people should we have on our bus at the beginning and the end of the trip? Do you think we could get that right?
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Jonah 3-4: But What if You Don’t Love Your Enemies?

Many times the Gospel has been boiled down to something as simple as loving one another. The Law and the prophets are summed up by Jesus (Matthew 7:12) as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and (Matthew 22:37-40) “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… Love your neighbour as yourself.’ But what happens when we don’t? The story of Jonah.   Jonah hates. Jonah hates the Ninevites so much that rather than obey God and point them to salvation, he runs in the opposite direction (Jonah 1:1-3).   Jonah hates the Ninevites so much that when the opportunity presents itself, he decides that he would rather die than obey God by pointing them to salvation (Jonah 1:12). Jonah does not want to preach to the Ninevites because he knows they will be saved (Jonah 4:2); he hates them so much that he wants them destroyed (Jonah 4:3). He wants no part of their salvation.   Are we ever like this? Do we ever hate a person or group
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New Year's Resolutions (Ephesians 4:1-23)

Today I have a bit of a quiz for us. I am going to call out a verse and you tell me the reference. Let’s see how we do.   1.       For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) 2.       In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) 3.       But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33) 4.       For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23) 5.       In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) 6.       The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1) 7.       In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, (Ephesians 4:26)   I picked the Ephesians 4:26 verse because we talk about it almost every week in prayer meeting before Church se
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The Light Shone All Around (Luke 2:9-20)

Last night, like every night, our staff were working all night at the Bread of Life. We are open all day everyday and all night every night. Last night, today and tonight are no different. Our staff all has to take their turn working. Those who had last night, today, or tomorrow off, will need to work New Year’s Eve, night, or day – and they will need to be sober.   This is not entirely dissimilar to the shepherds in our text today. They are working the night shift. They have the important job of protecting the lives of the sheep from predators just like our staff have the responsibility to protect the lives of the homeless under their care from predators. Without our shelter, many of our friends would not have a safe warm place to sleep. The shepherds in our text were not in a safe warm place.   The text says that an Angel appeared and stood before them. The word angel just means ‘messenger’ but the appearance of this messenger certainly alludes to something more, something much more.
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Tied to Advent, the Fourth Part (Luke 2:1-2)

2018’s tie has an Advent wreath reminding all who see my tie of the importance of Advent and a profession of faith. 2019 and 2020’s ties don’t have quite as overt Biblical themes as the others. 2019’s tie references Bohemian Rhapsody , the Song by Queen, but if you look at the faces you may notice that instead of the band members they are pictures of Heather, Sarah-Grace, Rebecca, and Susan around a Christmas Tree. Christmas Trees, off course, like the Advent wreaths, symbolize eternal life – so there is that reference to Scriptures. 2020 is an animal – a cat maybe?, the Christmas Star, and two pineapples making up the zeros in 2020. That is an inside joke. In 2020 there were a lot of pineapples in the food bank here and it made me a little concerned that we were handing these out to people who had no food and no means to eat them and    - while there were a lot of inside jokes that I won’t necessarily share here but this tie was certainly a personal act of love – just as God sending J
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