Devotions (Page 7)

LifeSpring is so blessed. Look no further than to our Sunday speaker, Peggy Leung, who sits on the Board of Directors at Toronto LifeSpring and alongside her husband, Raymond, leads one of our LifeGroups. I have had the privilege of knowing Ray & Peggy for 10+ years now and their lives cry out genuine love for God and genuine care for others. Peggy spoke on an extremely important topic that this world (and us) desperately needs. She spoke on peace.…

When Maria from Neighbourlink shared stories of the work that she and her team has done in the 415 community and the experiences that her and her team went through, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity.  Maria shared about how they recently recruited a youth yeader who started hosting youth programs in the 415 community. This guy would play basketball with the youth and eventually created opportunities to speak into their lives on and off the court.…

Last week during one of my bus commutes, I witnessed an especially intriguing interaction that led me to considering who God is in a new way. A group of teenagers got on the bus, and after the first couple of them walked on and attempted to pay, the bus driver called out for them to come back because the payment hadn’t worked. Instead of going back to pay or even responding to the bus driver at all, they just stood…

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10 Hopefully these verses are somewhat familiar to you, as they were one of our memory verses at Lifespring! There are many benefits…

I had the privilege of attending a short training from Church Renewal titled “How Do We Know God’s Will?” It was a great training with lots of helpful, practical advice and a bonus Q&A at the end. One of the points that really stood out to me was about the mystery of God’s Will.  The Bible says “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past…

Dear LifeSpring Family, Recently, I have been thinking and meditating on something that I heard from a Tim Keller sermon. Dr. Keller asked the question on how I see myself. Do I see myself as the world sees me or as Abba Father sees me? The world sees me by what I acquire and accumulate: Mostly good things like education, positions, titles, house, property, wealth, marriage, children and list goes on.  Abba Father sees me by what I give up and…

We want to appreciate all you mommys out there. Physical mamas, spiritual mamas, soon-to-be mamas, one day mamas – we want to appreciate every female at Lifespring. If I ask all the males why you appreciate the females in your life, they could list 1000 things! We want to appreciate all the things you do, but more importantly, we want to appreciate who God made you to be. The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to…

On Sunday Karyne spoke on the power of the Holy Spirit in helping her respond rather than react to the challenges of life. We often look to the fruit of the Spirit as an indicator of Christ in us and evidence of the Holy Spirit.  Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV) says: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” In learning how to identify the fruit…

Although there were so many gems in Karyne’s sermon on Sunday, one specific part really caught my attention. John 15 and the entire passage about needing to abide in the vine in order to bear fruit has been huge for me over the last couple years and I’m sure that this partnership of Karyne’s message with that passage will continue to challenge me moving forward. “We put a lot of effort into ensuring that the atmosphere around us is good.…

It is always fun for me to sit on the pew side whenever my wife speaks. I get to hear the same scenarios and situations that we both face, and I get to hear the perspective and what God is doing through those moments to my wife as He also works in me. What an amazing privilege to know and see that God works on both of us – love you Karyne. Life can be hard. And life is fast.…

Our current memory verse is James 1:2-4: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. I read this in the King James version and noticed a change in the wording: My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the…

Dear LifeSpring Family, As a teenager in Singapore, my Sunday School teacher got us to memorise Hebrews 10:24: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”  This was of course an effort by the Sunday School teacher to get young teenage boys to behave in class and to think of others beside themselves. Two things that do not come naturally to teenage boys.  In the last couple of years, I have taken up the spiritual discipline of memorising God’s work. So naturally, I looked up old favorite verses…