I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me (I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength to me; I am self sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency). (Philippians 4:13 Amplified Version)

Many of us as children have called out for our parents when faced with a tough situation. I remember when I was five I decided to climb the maple tree that cast a shadow on the sand box beside our house. As a new tree climber I never considered that going up also means coming back down, and when it was too late to realize this I looked down and froze. I remember crying, and my brother went inside to get my parents. First Mom came out and didn’t know what to do, as I was quite high in the tree. Then my Dad came out and seemed to know exactly what to do… “Jump!” In my five-year-old mind, my Dad was smarter than Superman and almost as tough — so I jumped from what seemed like 100 feet and miraculously didn’t come out looking like a run-over pop can. This kind of faith as a young boy wasn’t just a rational weighing of the facts. It was a faith that came from some deeper form of knowing my Dad. more…

After looking at the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday we followed up the next Sunday by looking at the reaction of Christ’s followers to this event, and if we look closely we can see ourselves in their reaction. What we see, is Mary at the tomb looking for the corpse of her Lord and the disciples hiding out somewhere behind locked doors “for fear of the Jews.” What is amazing about their reaction is that they all assume Jesus is dead and gone, when he clearly told them what was going to happen many times and in different settings: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day raised to life”(Matthew 16:21).

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The pinnacle of the Easter weekend as celebrated by the Church is the Easter Sunday, when we celebrate the miracle of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of resurrection as I have never seen a person who was dead come back to life, but over the years, as I’ve read the scriptures and the accounts of those who verified this event, I’ve realized that the reality of what I’ve experienced personally (in my relationship to Christ) is actually grounded in a historical event; An event that was confirmed by many witnesses from varied backgrounds and cultures in the second century. more…

Many of us have heard the story of Jonah and the whale in Sunday school.  I have often wondered if this is only an allegorical story in the Bible, symbolizing a spiritual truth, but we know from the gospel of Matthew that Jesus referred to the story of Jonah as an actual historical event (Matthew 12:40).  In the account of Jonah, this prophet of old teaches us the danger of being familiar with the words of God and not His heart.

          God gave Jonah the task of preaching to the city of Nineveh, a city filled with his oppressive Syrian enemies.  After initially running from the task God had given him, which included a near shipwreck and a mysterious large fish, Jonah finally relents and preaches to the city.  more…

I’m sure all of us have had experiences where the hair on the back of our neck stood up because some unexplained circumstance that defied the odds played out in our lives.

A few years ago I was taking a few young people from church on a trip halfway across Canada. As I was driving I shared about a friend of mine who was dying of cancer. I had met Dave through teaching Sunday school years ago, and we immediately shared a special bond in our faith and love for the outdoors. Dave was a father figure to many young guys and had greatly impacted my life; how sad it was that the cancer was getting the best of him. I dropped off the young people at their destination and decided to start the two day drive back home. more…

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves as all such things as these: anger, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of it’s Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, cloth yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:5-14) more…

Ingredients of True Spirituality.

Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!?’ These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Colossians 2:20-23)

In the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, he addressed some of the problems that the church was encountering as a new community of Christian faith. He uses his letter to teach them what true Christian Spirituality is and to avoid the fake spirituality of legalism. more…

Faith or Addiction

When life is tough or unfair we all come to questions in our mind about the reason for those trials. Sometimes it seems impossible to make any sense of the events and circumstances that shock us and bring us to our knees in grief. I’m reminded of the story of Nehemiah in the Bible. We can see in the first chapter of the book of Nehemiah a man who’s wrestling and grieving with life and God. Nehemiah was a nobleman and an educated man in the nation of Israel, who now finds himself as a slave in the courts of a king whose army had killed, raped and burned his hometown to the ground. He now finds himself as the cupbearer for the king; A crash test dummy to test the drinks for poison before they get to the kings lips. Grief and humiliation of this sort is the kind that shakes a person to the core, but as we see when we read through the book, Nehemiah becomes one of the most inspiring leaders of hope as he is granted his freedom to return to his burned out city to rebuild. more…

The Medium is the Message

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:15-20).

As a teen I would pick up a Bible from time to time and try to read something out of it. I was always perplexed as I read a bunch of jumbled stories and teachings that seemed to make no sense at all. “How can anyone say this book is God’s word?” I thought. Does God expect the average teen to be able to make sense of all these random stories and sayings? It all seemed like a strange mystery to me, until one day it seemed that someone had given me a key to the mystery. more…

As of September 6, 2009 Pastor Sterling Quinn has taken the position of Lead Pastor at Terrace Bay Gospel Assembly. Pastor Sterling’s wife Danielle has been working in the community for a maternity leave at the Terrace Bay Clinic.