4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5). Why do some words stick with you and others don't? Why do some conversations remain lucid in our memories for our entire lives, while others fade ...

Our world today is a consumeristic world. Advertising is everywhere. Something is always being sold. We are constantly being influenced by the world toward discontentment and selfishness. We are told to think about what we need and want for ourselves and for our own happiness as our number one priority. Now this can be subtle or it can be direct. M...

One of the troubles with being the church militant and not yet the church triumphant, is that you have to deal with real-world battles and real-world sins. In other words, ministry is done among sinners not angels. There are issues to deal with, things that get tracked in from the world and make a mess in the church foyer. And while we should freel...

Redeemer Baptist is a church plant. We were planted just over a year ago by a handful of crazy people. I was going to say all joking aside, but I'm not so sure! By many worldly metrics you would have to say that church planting is crazy or foolish or doomed to failure. Or at least you would have to say that about the type of church planting that we...

The Apostle Paul said a lot of things. He wrote a lot of things. In fact, Paul wrote at least 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament and is responsible for about a quarter of its total word count. It is possible that he wrote the book of Hebrews as well, which would add to his prolificity. And I should hasten to add, that these writings were under...

Many of you are aware of Jordan Peterson. He is a Canadian intellectual who specializes in clinical psychology, and has rose to fame in recent years for his bold stance against political correctness and various leftist ideologies. He has written books of the self-help variety, more robust than the average sort. And he has done much speaking and lec...

What is baptism? By all appearances it looks like we are simply dunking someone in water. Someone could walk by a baptism service and not understand anything of the spiritual meaning of this sacrament. And Christians too can use some help understanding this. We know that Christian's get baptized, but do we know why? Do we know what is it that we ar...

Today marks the 155th year that Canada has been a country. Each time Canada Day comes around we have this opportunity to reflect, to celebrate and to give thanks for our nation. But if you are at all like me, you have some pause in your celebrations. Like the child of a wayward and ungodly father on Father's Day, we struggle with mixed feelings on ...

In much of evangelicalism, especially in Canada, there has been a lack of robust cultural engagement. Or to put it another way, the churches have been on the retreat for the last half a century of so; retreating to build isolated Christian communities. Instead of speaking into the issues of the day, many have opted to simply focus on matters of ind...

This week we will be celebrating the Day of Pentecost at Redeemer. This is the moment in Redemptive History where God poured out His Spirit more fully and universally on His people. This was a moment that changed history forever. We read this in Peter's sermon as he quotes the prophet Joel: 17 "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares,that I...

Evangelism is not easy, as I said in a recent blog post. And it is still true. But it is also still true that we are called to attempt this difficult task (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 1 Peter 3:15; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20). The aim of this blog post is to give you a few categories to think about different types of evangelism and a few tools for yo...

Evangelism is not easy. In fact, I would compare it to swimming a river up-stream, you know, like those Salmon do. Today, the streams of our culture flow hard against the bold proclamation of the Christian faith. Evangelism is looked at with disdain by those outside the faith; and from those within, it is either dreaded or ignored. Yet, aren't we c...

You want your church to grow right? I mean, no one plants a church in order for it to not grow. That wouldn't make a lot of sense. But here is a question we should be asking – what do we mean by growth? And perhaps a follow up question – why do we want to grow?  You see, both of those questions are crucial actually. To grow is not necessarily ...

This week marked a major development in the ongoing battle to bring about an end to abortion in this world. As I'm sure you are all aware, news broke via a leaked document, that the Supreme Court of the United States is planning to strike down Roe v. Wade. If this truly comes to pass this will be historic, an amazing answer to countless prayers (mi...

Do you pray for revival? Do you hope for revival? And by that, I mean expect it with faith not a mere wishing for it. You see, many Christians are not praying and seeking and hoping for revival. They are like the squirrel with its nuts, preparing for winter. They hunker down and seek the simple goal of not being destroyed by the world and the gener...

note: this post is a slightly edited version of the devotional shared at Redeemer's quarterly member's meeting on April 26th.Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).I praise the Lord f...

Why should you become a member of your local church? For many, attending and even being involved feels like enough. And while I would not want to downplay what a good thing regular attendance is, I would encourage every believer to consider becoming a member of a local Church. It doesn't involve secret handshakes or anything wei...