You might notice that the prayers I post say “we” and “us.” It is a good opportunity to pray in a way that holds your bothers and sisters in Christ up before God. We are in this together! Let’s pray for “us.”

Until tomorrow, dear friends, remember that there has never been a time before God. He knows our yesterday, our tomorrow, our forever. And he’s with us every moment.

Ah, so many memes, so little time. 🙂 Here are a few for your edification and amusement:

I never get tired of these cute, fun takes on the bible:

More on the difficulties of working from home or schooling from home:

This reminder for when you feel out of your depth:

This thought on 2020 vacations:

This great, simple, attainable graphic on things you can do (as a family or as individuals!) to be anti-racist:

This absolute truth about who I am:

This reminder of why to mask-up:

This cracked me up:

This take on the way the weather goes in Southern Ontario:

And finally, a blessing for your day:

Hello, dear friends! While I am on vacation, Sunday worship will be a little different on the blog. I have asked our musician, Eric Medhurst, to pre-record a prelude piece and a single hymn, and I have pre-recorded conversational Zoom sermons with some dear friends of mine. I hope this will continue to be a resource for spiritual growth for you!

Let’s begin with Eric’s prelude “It Is Well With My Soul,” arranged by Joel Raney:

And a prayer to do responsively, with the people you worship with each week, or even to simply say yourself:

Our Scripture reading this week is Isaiah 43:1-2:

Today, I welcome my friend and classmate, the Rev. Alton J. Ruff to the blog. Alton is the minister at Knox, Midland and has been a good friend of mine for many years:

Our hymn, in response to the sermon this morning is #407 Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, please remember that God is with you, that you are safe in the palm of His hand, God has called you by name or summoned you by name, YOU ARE HIS!

One of the things my Dad and I love to do in the summer is sing together. Often we do that on Sunday mornings at St. Andrew’s, Stirling where Dad serves as minister.

Of course, this is 2020, and nothing is what it once was. So we thought we’d sing together anyway and – as so much of our ministry and worship has been done this year – share it through the wonder of technology.

Welcome to our first “Singin’ Saturday,” here on the blog. Today we share with you, “Holy, Holy” out of the Amberlea Chorus Book. (Apologies in advance for a bad note or two (or four, or eight!!!) on my part!)

Until tomorrow, dear friends, praise the Lord and prepare your hearts for worship! (It will be posted by 9am-ish tomorrow morning!)

During my time away this summer, I’ll be bringing you some moments from the farmhouse.

This week, it’s all about Crowe River – which is a local river with shelves of limestone and short waterfalls. It’s HOT in southern Ontario right now – we’ve been under heat advisories for days. So spending time in water is a perfect way to enjoy the weather, while keeping cool.

So, off your viewing pleasure, here is some of the natural beauty Mom and I have been enjoying while going for a swim (or in my case, a wade! 🙂 ):

A few panos:

• 

• 

• 

And some regular pictures:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

There’s nothing, in my opinion, like appreciating the beauty of nature to draw one close to God.

Until tomorrow, dear friends: stay safe, stay cool, draw close to the Creator who loves you dearly!

Each Thursday during my time away, I’ll be sharing a passage from a book that has impacted and informed my theology. I’ll also supply some questions for you to ponder/answer. It’s like a mini-faith formation class/Bible study!

So, let’s get thoughtful!

Questions for thoughtful consideration:

Welcome to Worship Music Wednesday on the blog. Over the next four weeks, as I take some vacation, I’ll be posting some links to worship music to brighten your Wednesdays and strengthen your faith.

Today we begin with a new-to-me singer who I learned of through my friend The Janet – Audrey Assad. She is known for being incredibly plain-spoken about the struggles in her walk of faith.

Her voice and music are ethereal and beautiful. For your edification, here are two of her videos – How Can I keep from Singing and It is Well with my Soul. You can subscribe to her YouTube channel here.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, sing praises to the Lord!

Summer (for many) means being outside more often. It means living in creation, in ways that we might not have in winter. So today I give you a prayer entitled “Psalm of Creation.” May it be a blessing to you today!

Until tomorrow, dear friends, get a breath of fresh air, run your finger along a leaf, or walk barefoot in the grass, and draw near to your creator.

Good Monday to you! Let’s see what fun things I managed to find through social media this week:

2020 jokes are the new “I hate Mondays!” (And seriously, this is too perfect!):

And since 2020 appears to be the year of work-from-home/school-from-home, let’s just admit that this is all too real:

I love this reminder – emotions are always allowed…but figuring out what to do with difficult emotions is SO important. You can be angry, but let your anger drive you to loving action, being a strong voice, binding up the wounds in the world around us. Do NOT allow it to make you bitter or cruel:

I’m so grateful to the weirdos who are my tribe!:

This simple, and beautiful, instruction on how to live well:

This encouragement for your inner-super-hero:

The warm weather is hear, which means bbq season! This tickled my funny bone:

Dallas Willard was a theologian with a number of published books. He was also a mentor and friend to John Ortberg, one of my favourite Christian thinkers. Here’s just a little glimpse into his brilliance:

This is a great, and poetic way of explaining why we need to be about “we” rather than “me,”:

I think Jesus had some things to say about planted seeds, no? Love this:

And finally, a blessing for your day:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, lean up on the One who is your rock and salvation.

One of the things I’ve heard over and over throughout the pandemic is that people are struggling to find rest. Whether it’s parents having to juggle childcare, online schooling and work-from-home life, or students struggling to find some semblance of reassurance about their current and future studies, or elderly people afraid that one misstep could mean they contract the virus that is deadly to so many in their age group. Or just the average person tired of having to rethink so many aspects of life, having to redefine so many activities.

Rest is hard to find right now. And yet it is one of the things that Jesus promises us. So together, let’s try to find some rest today as we turn our eyes to Jesus for Sunday worship.

Let’s begin with Eric’s prelude, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,” arranged by John Carter:

Our opening prayer:

And our first hymn this morning is #328, This is my Father’s World:

Forgive me, but in the rush of trying to get everything ready for when I go away next week, I didn’t have time to secure a Scripture reader, so I will just post the reading for you:

The sermon for this week:

And our final hymn is #746 What a friend we have in Jesus:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, hitch yourselves to Jesus, and find rest for your souls!