Posts from 2023 (Page 10)

In the old days when a king or emperor would take over a country/province, one of the first things they would do is burn their history books. If you took away their history books you would take away their past, their collective knowledge and ultimately their existence. The history books of a people group tell them about who they are, where they came from and what they went through to get to where they are today.The Bible is a prime…

What a blessing it was to hear from Leona. There were so many gems and nuggets of wisdom for all of us in the church family, no matter where you are in your walk of faith. As Leona was sharing, she concluded with 2 very powerful statements that I believe are instrumental in who we are as a Kingdom Family. Come As You Are This entire year we have been focusing on Kingdom Parenting – in our focus we sometimes…

On behalf of Gabe, Rodney, and myself I want to give my heartfelt thanks to the Lifespring family for sending us to Turkey over the past week. There was so much that God did on the trip, and we look forward to sharing these stories with you all in the coming weeks and months. To give an overview of what we did, we traveled to Turkey with the intention of exploring the possibility of refugee sponsorship and spent about a…

Dear LifeSpring Family, This past Monday, in our Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) group, we were studying the weeping prophet, Jeremiah. In all the doom and gloom of the situation that Judah and Israel found themselves, we have the famous Jeremiah 29:11 verse: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. While the BSF group of men were discussing how many of…

This past Sunday we heard from Pastor John Park of Compassion Canada. He shared that he sponsors 4 children from 4 different countries with the goal of not only being a beacon of hope in their lives and providing tangible support but also that one day he would get a call saying that they no longer needed his support anymore. This idea of receiving a call that the person you have been sponsoring no longer needs your help is bittersweet.…

Rather than writing out my own thoughts about Good Friday or trying to come up with a genius new way to talk about how Jesus needed to lose his life in order for us to gain True Life… I want to encourage all of you to check out the Scripture passages in the Gospels that outline for us what took place. Take your time as you read through them and pay attention to the parts that stand out to you.…

Let’s say you go on a trip to the Rockies. When you arrive, you’d probably be really excited about seeing it and taking lots of pictures. In contrast, the locals, who see the Rockies from their backyard, take almost no notice of it. It’s become so normal and familiar to them that it doesn’t deserve extra attention or recognition. Similarly, we often skip parts of the Bible that we’ve heard and read many times. I’ve definitely thought, “Oh, I’ve seen…

This week, we started a new memory verse for the spring season. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” If you haven’t been able to memorize the longer passages we’ve done so far for memory verses, now is a great time to start! We can better understand what this verse may mean for Lifespring when we understand Proverbs 22:6 in the context of…

Dear LifeSpring Family, As we get closer to Easter Sunday on April 9th, the most important event on our Christian calendar, it got me thinking of our Gospel truths. What are the truths that I believe and base my eternity on? In his book, Gospel Fluency by Jeff Vanderstelt reminds us of the principle of the “fruit to root and root to fruit”. This principle simply states that the fruit we see in our lives is directly connected to our…

I began reading/listening to a new book about prayer called Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools by Tyler Staton and despite only being a few chapters in, it’s already been such a source of encouragement! Prayer is something that shaped him as a 12-year-old when he prayed through his grade 8 yearbook. He would go to his school at 6:30 in the morning and pray through his class, name by name. The small Bible Study he launched at his school…

If you’re reading this on your Sabbath and wondering whether or not this qualifies as work or rest, perhaps you need to ask yourself: What does Sabbath mean to you? Ray reminded us that although we are “Heroes” in God’s Kingdom, we must be careful not to fall into the traps of the world, where we are meant to do God’s will. John 17:14-18 (NIV) 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they…

Blessed is the one    who does not walk in step with the wickedor stand in the way that sinners take    or sit in the company of mockers,but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,    and who meditates on his law day and night.That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,    which yields its fruit in seasonand whose leaf does not wither—    whatever they do prospers. Psalm 1:1-3 When I was…