The Anchor Weekly – The Chestermere Lake News

Nehemiah was a brilliant leader. He was the cup-bearer to the King of Persia which meant he tasted the king’s food and wine for poison. It sounds like a horrible job but it came with a high level of trust and authority. When Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem had fallen he asked the king for permission to help rebuild them. The king provided everything for the massive project and Nehemiah went on his way. As he started to rebuild the walls, opposition arose from Israel’s enemies (Nehemiah 4). They didn’t want Jerusalem to be protected and they didn’t [...]

Last week I received an email titled “8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses”. It struck me that these principles are not just worldy-wisdom but are comparable to the Christian life. Here they are: 1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield. We are all in this together! We are in a battle for souls, a battle against sin, and a battle against Satan. Too often the Church gets into battles with each other over things that just don’t matter. We use our weapons for friendly-fire and the Kingdom of God stops advancing because of our stupid pride. Remember who the [...]

Last Friday night I got the call from my mom: “There’s been a horrible accident on Highway 9 and your cousin is dead. STARS is flying her son to Calgary. We don’t know if he’s okay.” We had just finished our regular Friday night bible study and I was in the middle of telling one of our teens about needing to put his faith in Christ soon. “You never know when a car could come out of the blue and end your life.” Four minutes later my casual comment became all too real. A longer, slower death gives you the [...]

Accountability groups. I don’t like them. The problem I’ve found with Christian accountability groups is that we gather together and promise to live a certain way, strictly following the rules of the Bible, holding each other accountable, only to watch most of the members fail. We confess our failures to each other and then usually one of two things happen: everybody hums and haws making little comments about how hard the struggle is and then we move on, OR the confessing person gets a tongue lashing and is told to try harder. We make “the Group” the reason for doing [...]

A teacher walked into her classroom with a stunning vase. She set it on her desk at the front of the room and the children’s voices rang out with a chorus of “oohs” and “aahs”. She described the painting style and explained the detailed pictures to her students. They admired the beauty of the vase, commenting to one another continuously. Then with the snap of her wrist she shoved the vase and it came crashing down to the floor. The vase shattered and the children quickly realized it was filled with the vilest smelling stuff imaginable. Rotten food, animal waste, [...]

I think I figured something out this week. Throughout my Christian life I’ve had many Christians and even family members turned off or confused by my passion for Christ. My wife and I have had things said to us like, “aren’t you taking this a little too seriously?” and “don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good!” Too heavenly minded? You can’t be any earthly good unless you are too heavenly minded! So this week I was on a little bit of a rant because someone close to us has criticized a new calling on our lives as [...]

How in the world did the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, the most sacred and central event in Christianity, come to be represented by a fluffy bunny who mysteriously has colored eggs and gives out cheap candy to kids? The Easter Bunny is a commercialized cultural commonplace around the world yet for all its familiarity, the Easter Bunny’s true origins are a mystery. The Resurgence (www.theresurgence.com) researched this: EGGS AND BUNNIES Eggs and rabbits have been used as traditional symbols of springtime fertility and rebirth by various cultures throughout history. Eggs symbolize new life about to emerge, while hares and [...]

“For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” – Malachi 3:2b The Lord has a specific manner of preparing his people for useful service. God desires to turn his children from rough, hard-edged stones into gems of gold and silver. “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years” [...]

“I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13 In the thirteenth century a man named William Wallace became the instrument of freedom from England’s tyranny over Scotland. A very wicked king ruled England. A tragedy in the life of William Wallace launched him into living for this cause. Initially his cause was revenge, but soon his cause turned to something bigger than himself – freedom for a nation. When he challenged the commoners to fight for this freedom, they responded that the enemy was too great and that they might die on the battlefield. They [...]

Pour a tall, ice-cold glass of water. Get an eyedropper filled with a bit of bleach and gently squeeze one drop into the water. Take a bottle of kitchen cleaner out from under the sink and add another drop to the water. Finally squirt a little window cleaner into the mix. Now…would you ever drink that glass of water? Obviously that would be ridiculous. That tall glass of clean spring water has now become toxic with just a few drops of poisonous chemicals. It’s absurd that we would ingest this mixture because it would harm us physically. But we drink [...]