“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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It pays to go to school. Statistics Canada found that more than 80% of College and University graduates had acquired full time employment within two years of graduating. In our high tech world, education is necessary for financial success. To gain knowledge through education is very laudable. But the Bible tells about an even greater goal in life? It is that of obtaining wisdom. Paul wrote to young Timothy, “But as for you,… continue in what you have learned.. how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise to … through faith in Christ.” The prudent make their goal to not only have knowledge of this world, but that true wisdom which comes from God. And the place to begin in our quest for that wisdom is to become rightly related to God by placing our faith in His Son, Jesus, because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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In the Canadian Federal Election held last month, much was made of one of the leader’s looks. Jennifer Benson Schuldt, in a recent issue of Our Daily Bread wrote, “When God looks at us, He is more interested in our hearts than our height, the state of our soul than the structure of our face. He doesn’t see us as too old, too young, too small, or too big. He zeroes in on the things that matter- our response to His love for us…” And when Samuel was called upon to select a new king for Israel, the God warned him, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” When He looks into our hearts, does He see humility to acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy, since “all have sinned …” Does He see faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus, who says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.”?

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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Sometimes because of language and cultural differences, even the big multi-national companies run into trouble trying to crack the international market and changes have had to be made. To illustrate this, it has been said that in Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan “come alive with the Pepsi generation” came out as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.” another claim is that in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan, “finger lickin’ good” came out as “eat your fingers off.” In contrast, the Bible has been translated into over 500 languages, and over 1,000 languages have Bible portions translated. But amazingly though, in spite of language and cultural differences, its message never changes, because Jesus is “the same, yesterday and today and forever.” And its central truth is “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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