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There are things in the world that go wrong, things that are terrible. What has Christian faith had to say about evil? If we are people of Hope, how are we to be mature in our consideration of terrible things in the world?

In the end of all things, heaven is about God getting what God wants, Jesus is always more and greater than we can imagine. Salvation is the point of Creation.

Revelation 5 gives us cosmic picture of the completion of all things in Christ. In the contest between divine benevolence and human recalcitrance God will win.

We're joined by guest speaker Dan Russell from Union Gospel Mission, who will be bringing a sermon from the book of Acts.

It is easy to become distracted by the judgements and expectations of others. When we truly see that God is working we are free to serve in response.

An essential aspect of Christian mission is the acceptance that God loves people who are unlike us. How are we called to understand our own story and the stories of other?

We begin our new series on Christian Mission this week with a question: "Why is it so easy to not believe in God?" Why in the year 1500 was it virtually impossible to not believe in God? Why by the year 2000 had disbelief become assumed?

What difference does it make if Jesus rose from the dead? How might the resurrection matter for our lives, our world, our hope?

The Sunday before Easter is known as Palm Sunday. As Jesus enters Jerusalem he is greeted by praising crowds. Within a matter of days he will be abandoned.

Jesus says he is the light of the world. How is his authority different than that of the world?

The story of the Prodigal Son (or the "Loving Father") presents us with a beautiful view of God's love and judgment. Our ideas of judgment are upended and if we are willing to see, we are confronted with the shattering love of God.

As we move through the season of Lent we consider a story of Jesus that shows us the depth of the love of God.

Today we begin a lenten series considering the identity, teaching, and mission of Jesus. What do people think of Jesus? who do they say that he is? What does it mean to give our lives to Christ?

What is the new life that we have once we've seen and responded to the love of God?

What is the best prayer you could ever pray for others? What prayer of intercession might encompass virtually all other prayers?

God's love is always bigger than we had previously thought. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus reminding them that the love of Christ is for all people.

When Jesus returns home he encounters 4 spirits: a spirit of flattery, a spirit of envy, a spirit of entitlement, and a spirit of anger.

The heart of the Christian message is reconciliation. We are recipients and bearers of this Gospel call.

Much of our energy and angst in life comes from fairly constant focus on what will happen. Our faith calls us to consider what God has done. f

What are the first things in faith? What are the first things we should pray for others in virtually any circumstance?

What might Mary and Joseph have been thinking as they made their way to Bethlehem? If they had been visited by angels proclaiming God's presence and blessing with them, why did they find themselves on this dusty road with no assurance of accommodation for the impending birth?

What happens when you feel God's presence and direction, but then things don't turn out as you might have hoped? Mary and Joseph had angelic visits, but they may have later asked, "If God is performing miracles with us, then why could he not have booked a room?"

Advent in the Christian Calendar, is the season of waiting. It is marked by prayerful consideration of the birth of Jesus, the incarnation and by awaiting the coming again of Jesus. Many Christians learned about the Second Coming of Jesus in ways that were fearful and even in ways that distorted the love of God. How might we recover the concept of the Second Coming as hopeful? One day, Jesus will make all things right.

Guest speaker Daniel Burgi preaching on the Sunday before Advent. In many Christian denominations this is called, "Christ the King Day".

Intercessory prayer is one of the greatest tasks and blessings in the Christian life. We pray to God for our friends, our families, our community, and our world. This act of prayer reflects the love of God in Jesus Christ and the ongoing intercession of the Holy Spirit.

When we think of healing prayer we often think of physical healing. Prayers of healing may well point to the physical but they also point beyond that to salvation and to the communal not only the individual.

Hanna prays at God's blessing in her life. One of those who had been healed of leprosy returns to give thanks. Job declares his trust in God no matter the circumstance. As Christians we are called to pray prayers of praise, from our lives, from an awareness of God's goodness, from a regard for creation and for the sake of the world.

In our series on Prayer, we consider Prayers of Lament. One of the greatest gifts that we can offer our world is to share in the suffering, sorrow and grief, to lament on behalf of the world. As Christians we can do this because pain and sorrow exist within the larger truth of Hope and Salvation in Christ.

What comes to mind when you hear "prayer of deliverance"? Israel was delivered from Egypt, but it would take a whole lot longer and another deliverer to have Egypt delivered from them. This morning we look at what deliverance looked like for the Israelites and for us as well.

Blessing prayer reminds us of God's goodness and of our opportunity to recognize this goodness and pronounce blessing in the world. We consider this call as we take up 100 Days of Prayer.

The Psalms express the messiness and complexity of living out our faith in God. "Are you troubled, afflicted, broken-hearted, crushed of spirit? Don't worry God is on your side! Really?! Because it seems to me if God were on my side then...oh never mind." But then often, through the rawness and honest of the Psalms, hope comes, and if you look hard, you can see shadows and glimpses of Jesus, the One who helps the troubled, heals the afflicted, draws near the broken-hearted and saves the crushed of spirit. "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!"

Are you saved? That question used to be more familiar in some church circles than it is now. The idea of salvation being about "who is saved" and "who is not", begs other questions, such as, "what does salvation mean?" "how can the Gospel be good news if most people are 'unsaved'?". We look a the biblical concept of salvation and how it is much larger than individual.

The concept of sin has been one of the most misunderstood and improperly employed ideas in Christian Theology. Why is the idea important in our world, our lives? How can we begin to see the truth of knowing that we are all sinners as part of God's revelatory grace?

Leaders of the early church are forced to change their plans on multiple occasions. Is this chance or God's direction? In most cultures, through all of history people have held on to certain artifacts or finds as evidence of divine presence, blessing or as hope for "good luck" or fateful blessing. You find something in the junk drawer that at one time you held on to in such a way. How do we project meaning into objects? What might it mean that God is "watching over us?"

What does the New Testament say about social status and gender roles? How are we to be directed in Christian faith in terms of these questions?

Canada Day: Gratitude, Confession and Mission” What does it mean to be grateful for nation? How ought we to rightly celebrate the national holiday? Christians are called to have no allegiance higher than that to Christ.

This is one of the best sounding of all the Psalms, a promise of God's protection and provision. But is it true? Or is it like finding something in the junk drawer that carries with it a nostalgia for how innocent you thought things once were? Does it hurt to consider such a Psalm in the often hard reality of life?

We consider what our faith calls us to in terms of relating to governing authorities. Are passages like Romans 13 (be subject to governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God) things that we can "get rid of"? Do these directions matter, and if so, how so?

We consider what it means that "All Scripture is God-Breathed" (2 Timothy). What do our lives imply about our view of the Bible? What things are of utmost importance in Scripture? What things might be considered secondary? How do we relate to people who answer these questions differently than we do?

Nicodemus goes to speak to Jesus while it is dark. He does not know what he is seeking. In the darkness, Jesus speaks about light and love and freedom. Jesus mentions new life found only in God. Physical life is not enough. We must be "born of Spirit". And yet we can find ourselves seeing the world through darkness rather than light. We can seem to be weighed down by fear and death. What will lead us out of the darkness into living the full light of Christ?

Think for a moment about the ways in which arguments end. Does one side win? Is true reconciliation possible? Christian faith, in its view of how things end, gives us a positive and hopeful way of seeing humanity that can entirely change how we view argument.

We live in a community among people of different faiths, worldview and perspecties. How are we all to get along? What is our responsibility to one another in this community? We consider how Jesus related to people of different faiths. While we can be very different than others in terms of faith, believe and worldview, the longing of the human heart is often common across faiths. How does our faith in Jesus address this longing?

We turn to the book of Corinthians to hear about divisions in the early church. What were the occasions of these divisions and how did the call of faith in Christ demonstrate diversity within unity?

We consider the argument that God and the Bible promote violence. Have most wars in history been fought in the name of religion? How does Jesus bring love and justice together? Today we look at one of the most difficult passages in Scripture. 1 Samuel 15 describes the rejection of Saul by God. It appears that God is rejecting Saul as king because he did not kill all of the people according to God's instruction.

It can seem the world is awash in argument, conflict and disagreement. The history of the Christian church has at times regrettably added to this discord. One of the areas our faith ought to be evident is in how we argue.