"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-17

In the face of such times, what is there to like about Christmas? Why do I appreciate the Christmas story? What is in that simple story that we can and should ponder and treasure?

This is a true story from the Bible. Lots of stories are not true. Children know this. I did not want to read "The Cat in the Hat" and then "The Christmas Story" and act as if they were the same.

One thing that seems to unite the Christian and the average Canadian is having firm opinions about Christmas trees. In particular, whether you should have a real tree or a fake tree.

I think there are several reasons why many Christians have started celebrating Advent. One is that Christians want to make a clearer distinction between Biblical/Christian Christmas and Canadian Christmas.

I am not saying that every church polity ever developed is biblical, only that there are several "traditions" or "streams" of church polity that can reasonably be said to be biblical. I think Anglican church polity is biblical.

If you are at all like me, you know that you never did this perfectly. I have sobering news for you - you will never repent and believe perfectly.

I am going to tell you a very, very, scary Jesus story. It is one of the scariest stories about Him.

No question is perfect. Because of the world, the flesh, and the devil, your heart can be very creative in crossing over from being convicted by God’s word to convicting God's word.

So when you study the Bible, you need to read the text carefully, understanding the words, the genre, the context, and the flow of the text.

It turns out that there are a lot of people who think this, and it has been one of those things that have gone on without it really penetrating my attention.

The minister is to be a "messenger, watchman, and steward of the Lord", so they are to be saturated with the Bible, namely the gospel and the whole counsel of God.

"Far more important than who is standing with us when all this is over, is where we are standing now, and will be standing, when all this is over."

If I downplay hell and talk as if it is not really in the Bible and I convince you - well you might be happy for a while, but then if you read your Bible regularly, and read through all of the Bible (which is very wise to do), then you will keep coming across judgment and hell texts.

You have to be careful that you do not let the bad use of a good thing stop you from pursuing the good use of a good thing. There is nothing wrong with metaphors. It is next to impossible to speak without using a metaphor.

Does the Bible have anything to say about face masks? Should Christians be content to wear them for months and maybe even for years to come?

In Canada today, you are probably more familiar with churches being so "open" and "broad" that it is not clear that they are Christian, but you can also lose touch with the gospel and the Body of Christ by being too narrow.

It often seems as if we go through long seasons of history where Christians are not very creative, whether in music, painting, sculpture or the other arts. Given that there are probably always Christians who are very creative, maybe it is better to say that we go through long seasons where Christians are at best indifferent to the arts and creativity, and at worst, hostile.

It is one thing to agree to a temporary suspension of rights and freedom for a health crisis, it is another thing to agree that the state should be able to suspend freedom of religion (and other freedoms) into the future.

It is the middle of the summer and it almost feels wrong to even talk about September to December. So please forgive me for turning your mind away from holidays and summer time in Ottawa.