The World Anti-Doping Agency recently alleged wide spread corruption and collusion by Russian officials to cover up drug test results. This is the latest in a long line of athletes from many countries who have come under suspicion of taking dope to gain advantage over their competition. Former World Anti-Doping Agency President, Richard Pound said, “public opinion is going to move toward all sports being corrupt.” Someone might ask, “why do athletes do these things?” The answer is that athletes, like the rest of us are human. And the Bible describes our fallen nature as follows- “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Cheating in sports also illustrates another Bible truth- “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Fortunately though, there is forgiveness for athletes and all the rest of us when we do wrong. John wrote, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That’s a minute of truth!

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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A university student said that taking drugs “taught me to be alone- completely alone.” She had taken a trip with some friends, but found herself terribly alone, cut off from others by impenetrable walls of private experience. Someone has said that “loneliness is today’s great soul sickness.” Affluent couples shut themselves up in expensive high rise apartments. Poor widows or widowers exist in one barren room in the slums. The party crowd races from one place of entertainment to another. All share a deep sense of alienation, separation and “aloneness”. But into this world of the lonely walks the Son of God. He promised His disciples, when they feared being alone, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” How good to know the One who “sticks closer than a brother.” No,we don’t need to go through life all alone. If we sincerely ask Him, Jesus is willing to give us abundant satisfying life. He is the ultimate and permanent answer to loneliness. That’s a minute of truth!

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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“You have a choice-every moment of every day. The key to a life worth living is to change your perspective from inward to outward, from giving up to giving back, from closing our minds to opening our hearts….” That is part of an insightful statement in “Chicken Soup For the Soul by writer Katrina Willis. It is good advice for us all, especially the part that encourages us to open our hearts. Not only should we open our hearts to others, but also open our hearts to the dear Saviour, the Lord Jesus. He invites us to open our hearts to Him with the words, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.” And He also said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” But as Katrina Willis reminded us, “You have a choice.” We are never forced to open our lives to Him. But the moment we do, He promises, “Him (or her) who comes to me, I will in no way cast out.” That’s a minute of truth !

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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“If God loves us, why does He allow so much suffering, even to good people, in this world?” Ever heard that question, or thought about it yourself?? I recently read a story of a silversmith who explained his craft to a group of students. “Raw silver must be held in the hottest part of the flame to burn away the impurities. Afterward it can be fashioned into something beautiful.” A student asked, “How do you know the moment of purification?” “That’s easy,” the Silversmith replied, “ It’s when I can see my image in it.” And there is a verse in the Old Testament that seems to connect what the Silversmith said, to the question of suffering. Malachi wrote, that God “will sit as a refiner’s fire and a purifier of silver…” Later, Peter, was inspired to write, “And God, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will restore you and make you strong.” Yes, God allows good people to suffer, but He makes up for it later. That’s a minute of truth!

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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Keeping Canada Alive, is a television documentary which premiered on October 4, 2015. One episode told of a woman who donated a kidney so that her 81 year old father could regain his health. She said, “I just wasn’t ready to say ‘goodbye’ to him yet.” What a beautiful picture of family love and devotion. And how great God’s love must have been for the people of this world, when He gave His only Son to die on a cross to redeem us. The Bible puts it this way- “But God demonstrates His own love us, in this way, While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In another passage, we read, “This is how God showed His love among us; He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” He was not speaking of physical life, but eternal life, because “the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” What a price God the Father paid to show His love for us. What a Gift He offers us all. That’s a minute of truth!

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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“Moments ago I was a healthy 36 year old. But after donning an ”ageing simulation suit” I have been transformed into a frail senior citizen.” That quote is from an article in the Globe and Mail by Nancy Leung. It refers to a suit used by the Michner Institute for Applied Health Sciences in Toronto, that allows the participant to experience diminished eyesight, hearing loss, limited mobility and other challenges of aging. Thankfully, in reality, the ageing process is gradual. But however we experience it either suddenly by simulation, or slowly as we grow older, everyone of us will die. Count on it. And as we face the challenges ahead, how good it is to know we do not have to walk this road alone. Jesus promises, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He has also promised that when we pass from this life, for those in a proper relationship with the Lord Jesus, it will be “absent from the body and present with the Lord.” That’s a minute of truth!

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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In the cartoon The Family Circus , recently, a little guy is drawing his brother’s picture, who, seeing it is unimpressed. He says, “Hey! You said you were gonna draw me. “I don’t look like that!“ the artist replies, “Well maybe you don’t know what you really look like.” We smile, but there’s also a timely reminder here. It’s easy to have a distorted self image, not only of our outward appearance, but also concerning our “inner selves.” God’s Word, the Bible, is the only reliable source of truth on this subject. He inspired Isaiah to describe all mankind as follows. “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way…” Earlier, Paul had written “there is none righteous, no not one.” Only when we’ve taken an honest look at ourselves, admitting that we do indeed “ look like that,” and need outside help from above, are we ready to ask for cleansing and transformation. We then can become members of God’s great family. That’s a minute of truth!

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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The famous La Guardia airport in New York was named after Fiorella H. La Guardia, the mayor of New York during the depression. Acting as a judge in one of the poorest parts of the city in 1935, he was forced to pass sentence on a grandmother who had stolen bread to feed her starving grandchildren. He fined her $10 but then paid the fine himself. This is exactly what God did for us. Because of our sins, since, ”the wages of sin is death,” He passed the sentence of death on mankind. But then the Lord Jesus went to the Cross in our place and paid the sin debt Himself, we could not pay. Paul explained, “when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.” And as that poor grandmother must have been thankful for Judge La Guardia’s kind intervention, so should we be grateful to our Lord for His kind intervention for us, and invite Him into our lives

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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On one occasion, when Mark Twain was visiting in Boston, he met a friend who announced, “Before I die I’m going to the Holy Land, climb Mt. Sinai and read the Ten Commandments. Won’t that be wonderful?” “’l’ll tell you what would be more wonderful,” Twain replied, “Stay in Boston and keep them.” Truthfully, there has never been anyone, but our Lord, who kept the Ten Commandments. None of us can keep them and God knew we couldn’t. They reveal God’s character, furnish a general pattern for godly living, and reveal our sinful condition. Paul told the Romans, “…as by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, (Adam) so also by one Man’s obedience, (Christ) many will be made righteous.” He further explained “… the law was our tutor, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law for us.

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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He’d purchased new glasses. Everything had been okay for a while, but then his vision became unclear. Someone said to him, “How can you see through those glasses? You need to clean them.” He cleaned them again, but there was no improvement. So he showed it to an optician, who found a thin film on the lenses. He used a stronger lens cleaner, and immediately he could see perfectly well again. There’s a lesson here. We need to make sure we are not allowing biases or anything else to distort of perceptions or values. Someone once said, our conscience is not our guide unless we have truth for our creed. Because the conscience can be misleading, since it is conditioned by what we take in. And if the Bible, the ultimate source of truth, is not our guide, our values become distorted. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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