Dear Teammates, Your greatest challenge in life is ____________? Only you can fill in the blank, but a definition might prove helpful. Webster says a challenge is – to dispute, to confront, to call out, to question, or to invite into competition. As Christ followers we are not to be in competition with one another…
Posts from 2023
Like many of you, we’ve received a number of Christmas cards with beautiful calligraphy, profound Bible verses, and lovely poetry. But many are also filled with inaccurate historical representations of what the Bible tells us about the birth of Christ. For many of us, our understanding of the events around Jesus’s birth have been shaped…
It didn’t matter if it was in the heart of metro Manila or out in the jungles of Northern Luzon, as an American missionary in the Philippines, I knew I could always count on hearing “Hey Joe”, at least once a day. Due to the high numbers of American military personnel in the country after…
Dear Runners, On your mark, get set, go! I ran track and field in high school, so I know what it is like to line up on the starting line of a race! Then, it was always, “Runners to your mark, get set, bang!” In most races you must qualify before you can run. Recently…
This Sunday at Valley Church we’ll finish the story of a transformed life in Heb. 11:21. Last week we saw a manipulating, scheming, grabbing Jacob attain all the worldly success he could think of, but lost all the most important things, including his family. This week we’ll follow Jacob, now “Israel”, to a place where…
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” Do you know where this line is from? Do you agree with it? William Shakespeare uses this line in his play Romeo and Juliet to convey that the naming of things is irrelevant. But the truth…
Dearly Beloved, Faith it or fake it! When it comes to our relationship with the God who created us in His own image, “faking it” is not only foolish but dangerous. Remember in the early church the historic account in Acts 5 of Ananias and Sapphira! The early church community was known for its unity…
Dear Saints, Are there aliens out there? In a recent article on CCN, Britain’s first astronaut said, “Aliens definitely exist,– and it’s possible they’re living among us on Earth but have gone undetected so far.” Helen Sharman, who visited the Soviet Mir space station in 1991, told the Observer newspaper on Sunday that “aliens exist,…
As I write this note Valorie and I are sitting in Edmonton International Airport, having just come through US immigration. We were required to prove, through both physical and electronic means, that we were qualified to enter the United States of America. Our passports were carefully scrutinized by a very serious immigration officer with a…
Dear Friends, “Hopelessness” is defined as a state of mind and emotion characterized by a profound sense of despair, doubt, and a lack of belief or expectation that positive outcomes or improvements can occur. Hopelessness has a sister and her name is “pessimism,” that negative outlook on the future where individuals anticipate the worst possible…