The well-being of our environment has become one of the issues most important to Canadians. This shows up in how we vote and engage economically. You’ve probably recognized that Canadians and even Christians are divided on how we should feel about this issue.

There is an old prayer that Anglicans have been praying since the mid-1500’s. It has been a much hated prayer by many in the Anglican Church for the last forty years, but it is a wise, deep, and biblical prayer that we can both pray and learn from. The prayer is called The Prayer of Humble Access.

The Anglican Church of Canada will probably be in the news over the next week or so. What is the news and how does that church connect to Church of the Messiah?

What does Luke mean in Luke 5:1-11, when he says that after the miraculous catch of fish the men left everything and followed Jesus? It is a very graphic picture.

In the 1930’s an American theologian by the name of Reinhold Niebuhr developed a prayer which summarizes much Biblical wisdom. The prayer is commonly seen as being very wise; so much so that secular people will often remove all references to God and share its content with people, as an example of wisdom

There is an old joke that goes something like this, “After being in counselling and therapy, I now know that nothing is my fault.” We chuckle at this, and think of the people we know who think or act like this.

It is very clear from the Bible that the Lord wants us to be fat. The world tells us that we should be slim and lean, ready to run a marathon, but the Bible says that fat is the Lord’s. If fat is the Lord’s it must be good.

On one hand He is speaking to the eleven men in the room with Him. One the other hand He is speaking down the ages to every believer reading the words. It is both real prayer and real teaching at the same time.

You become a Christian “by yourself” in the sense that the decision to respond with faith to God’s grace in Jesus Christ is yours alone. But when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and are born again, adopted, made alive, redeemed, justified, washed clean – we enter into a New Covenant created by God.

I confess that I am often very timid about sharing the Gospel. Please pray for me! I also try to pray every day that the Lord will grant me at least one opportunity to bear witness to Jesus.

So how is Canadian culture shaping us? Lots of ways, but today let’s look at the AAA’s. Canadian culture shapes us to value, seek, believe and serve the “ideals” of: Autonomy, Authenticity and Affirmation/Acclaim.

I know many of you pray for Church of the Messiah and that many of you pray for me. Thank you! Please keep praying!

Let’s think briefly about the resurrected Jesus appearing in a locked room and startling the disciples. We cannot be doctrinaire in our interpretation. Many say that the door must have been flung open and Jesus walked in.

For your consideration, the following is a concise statement of the evidences for the real, true, historical resurrection of Jesus Messiah.

Surely there have to be times to think about death. Both death in general and your own death. Holy Week is a good time to think about death.

As a part of her study, she would visit both churches on a Sunday morning, and then later interview people from each church. She approached me and I agreed that Messiah (at the time called St. Alban’s) would participate.

Friends, the Bible is trustworthy and true. The more we find out about the ancient world, the more we see that the Bible is accurate.

The “service” consisted of the man reading a few Bible quotes and reading other stuff and reading prayers. I still remember thinking to myself, “Real Christians do not read prayers, they pray in their own words from their heart.”

Too many Christians live as if failure is not an option. But this is not true. We will fail. Our hope is not to be based upon our success, but our Saviour.

For me, “Anglican” is an adjective, never a noun. So I would not call myself a Christian Anglican. I would call myself an Anglican Christian. Similarly, I would not call myself an evangelical Anglican. I am an Anglican evangelical.