The other day a lady came into the office. Her arms were badly scratched up. We asked her what had happened. She told us that she was bitten by a snake which she had held in her arms. We wondered aloud why she held a snake in her arms and how she was bitten, cut was a better word, and what kind of snake that could have been? Was it poisonous? After a while she told us with a grin that they used that snake for plumbing problems.

Certainly there are all kinds of snakes. Some are poisonous. Some are deadly without being poisonous. Personally I do not like snakes. You may think that they, the snakes, are dead when suddenly they attack you with uncanny speed. Or they sneak up on you and attack. Or they slowly wrap around their victim then strangle them to death.

There is a story in the Bible about a snake that tempted the first lady in creation to disobey the word of God with disastrous and deadly consequences. The devil had chosen the snake to tempt the lady and she without fear listened, was enticed, thought evil to be good and she bit in an appetizing fruit. I do not know if it was an apple as some believe it was. There are some who do not even believe this story. The trouble is we are still tempted through the poisonous snakes of advertising to have our desires satisfied with whatever stuff whether or not it is what we need, whether or not it is good or bad. The whole field of advertising is build around the theme of want and greed, of becoming better and more knowledgeable.

The attack goes as follows: If you know the good, well and good. If you also know evil than you know more, and you are better of, right? And we are stuck with evil since the day of the first temptation.

How can we escape evil temptations? Can you answer that question?

People have looked into many directions for an answer and have discovered that the Bible teaches us not only the difference between good and evil but it also presents us with a defense against evil temptations. And you what? God is capable and very willing to help us in this battle if we so desire. He sent His only Son Jesus to pave the way, to be the Way for us to walk away from evil temptations. Open the Bible and discover the promises of a faithful God Who will not let you down. Let no snake of whatever type obstruct your way of life and your way into eternal life.

Rev. deJong is a retired CRC minister. He resides in the Aylmer area and attends church at Aylmer Christian Reformed Church.

To all our readers, may we wish you a Happy New Year! May the sun shine bright and your happiness be out of this world.

I have heard those wishes many a year, but do you know what? It does not always turn out that way. Even when the preacher says, “Have a blessed New Year”, I have difficulties singing, “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow”.

Another round of New Year’s celebrations has covered up a lot of misery, doubt and whatever else makes life unhappy. But, I ask myself, Why not a cover up? Why not have a few moments to spend in Dreamland where we can wish each other a Happy New Year and escape reality where many have no food, where many have no beds to sleep in, where many have no jobs to support their families, and where governments are crumbling under huge debt loads and civil unrest.

But after we have arrived in Dreamland and enjoyed its few moments of rest and pleasure, there is a problem. We will have to get out of bed, get out of the red by paying off our debt, and hope for health, wealth, work, and whatever else is on your wish-list to colour your new year with happiness.

A Happy New Year!? You wish. So I ask, how can we obtain happiness? Surely not through the extra spending that went on throughout the festive season. One fellow told me that he spent $ 5,000 on gifts
for which debt and accumulating interest was incurred, and he has to work hard throughout the next year to repay this. This doesn’t sound very happy to me.

What is happiness? It is not a good, warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Happiness is a gift that you are able to receive along with inner strength, endurance, self-control, and unselfish love for others.

Where can we find the source of all these gifts? Most aspects of life, even religions, instruct me that I have to work for these gifts. Well, if I have to work then these are no longer gifts, are they? The teacher says that to the man who pleases God, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness. And He adds “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”

So go ahead. Ask God and seek God, and you have His promise that you will receive, even a happy New Year, in which you can love God and your neighbour as yourself.

Rev. deJong is a retired CRC minister. He resides in the Aylmer area and attends church at Aylmer Christian Reformed Church.

Christmas is a time of happiness for most people. Why? Well, we give gifts, we get a possible bonus from work, (that is if we have work), we watch the kids perform, we have a party or two, etc. I ask, why do we celebrate Christmas?

Christmas will not be nice for Jane who with her two children lives on a disability pension in some dingy apartment that is too expensive and dilapidated. Fortunately the food bank is helping out and the Salvation Army has clothing, toys for her two boys and what all for her. Thanks to the Food Bank and Sally Ann. But that does not answer the question of, why do we celebrate Christmas?

Someone said to me that Christmas is a hoax. People are basically greedy and selfish. They are not satisfied with what they have. They are not content. They are not thankful. They only care for themselves, notice the Occupy movement. Why I should I care for others when others do not care for me. They do not invite me so why should I invite them?

Many of our readers deal with depression and loneliness in this time of the year when we think of a partner who has died or walked away with someone else, when we think about children who left wherever they went and we never heard anything from them anymore, when we think how we must live all by ourselves for the next whole year, a year filled with bills that must be paid, with a doctor’s diagnosis of cancer, etc.

Young mother Jane with her two kids is thankful but why do I find myself in this lonely depressing situation remembering how I was taken advantage of. Why do I celebrate Christmas?

Tell me, why do we celebrate Christmas? Why must we celebrate Christmas?

We celebrate Christmas because Christmas has come from a perfect heaven to this often not so nice world. Christmas, God’s Perfect Gift, a word that some do not like, we wish you season’s greetings and all that, we must be tolerant to our neighbour’s feelings, Christmas is the feast/gift of Christ’s birth. The celebration of Christmas is one of Canada’s Christian traditions which we hold dear. Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her King.

Why do we celebrate Christmas? Christ has come, the King of Righteousness. He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and the wonders of his love. Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in his wings. Mild, He lays his glory by, born that we no more may die, born to raise the lost on earth, born to give them second birth.

Why must we celebrate Christmas? With this Christmas we may receive Jesus the Christ Who is God’s assurance that he has not forgotten human need. In Him we are born to new life and new light, by receiving Him Who is the Truth. Have a blessed Christmas.

Rev. deJong is a retired CRC minister. He resides in the Aylmer area and attends church at Aylmer Christian Reformed Church.

Check out the Staff Openings page for more information.

Would it not be nice if your grandfather or your son or whoever you loved a lot and died through a horrific accident or a long lingering disease, would rise form the dead, knock at your door to live forever. Then we can really celebrate life. If he or she could rise from the dead, what about you?

Ah, you say, nobody lives forever, perhaps 100 years. That’s it. Yet, I rather not die than to watch spooks, devils and death, won’t you?

There is nothing spooky about persons who come back to life again. As a matter of fact, this transformation is part of our Judeo-Christian heritage. We call it the resurrection which I am sure you have heard of at the funeral of one of your loved ones.

This resurrection event which throws all goblins and ghosts into confusion and which does away with that eerie grave and howling devils has been brought about by one person who conquered that last enemy death and promises you eternal youth. Wow!

No spooks or evils spirits or a macabre death sense/sentence. Instead, new life today. That is some reformation. You should be part of it. You can be part of it. Do not be turned off by what the general population believes. Halloween is not innocent as it seems. We don’t celebrate death and devils but a God Who gives life through His Son Jesus.

So when neighbours try to scare the daylights out of you and your children, keep your daylights fixed on Jesus risen from the grave to offer you new life.

I believe that Halloween for many is a great time. But I am struck with this question:

That Jesus asked, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? Good question to ask and for you and me to answer, is it not?

-Rev. deJong

Rev. deJong is a retired CRC minister. He resides in the Aylmer area and attends church at Aylmer Christian Reformed Church.

While writing this article, the heat wave in Southwestern Ontario broke every record with warnings and watches for tornadoes, including the drenching of a camp ground along the shores of Lake Erie, while just north of there, not a drop (YET).

Why is this all happening? The news reports that we are all to blame for the hot weather, the greenhouse effect, and all that jazz; but, rains are not produced or advanced by politicians, nor by carbons of whatever form.

Rain comes from God the Creator. The Bible says that God provides rain in its season, and that the Lord prepares rain for the earth. Therefore the Bible admonishes us to fear the Lord Who gives rain.

This last statement makes a lot of sense. I will give you an example: If I were to receive a very expensive gift from you, and didn’t thank you for it but instead began to ridicule and curse you, would you, who out of the kindness of your heart gave me the fine gift, give me more? You’d be kidding if you said ‘yes’! I would be a rat plundering your kindness with no respect for you the giver, no thankfulness, and no contentment.

Now dear reader, let us consider the Giver of the rain and, by the way, He offers and gives us a lot more. Besides the rain, He, out of the goodness of His heart, even gave us His Son to die in our stead. Perhaps this is news for you, but the rain is not new. Do we ever thank Him for the drops of rain, for His kindness, and for His Bible? It should not come as a surprise to us that the rains will not fall if we are not thankful for them to Him, and if we do not talk about His Goodness.

Therefore, let us do His Will. Let us thank Him for preserving and protecting us, and for providing for us in this good land of ours. Let us thank Him for His Bible in which He spells out what He did for us, what He can do for us, and how we can thank Him with a life that shows that we do not only believe in Him, but also belong to Him. Yes, let us fear the Lord who gives us the rains.

P.S. – While the web article was being uploaded, the rain was downloaded. We thank the Lord for answering our prayers in advance. Thank you Lord for the rain.

-Rev. deJong

Rev. deJong is a retired CRC minister. He resides in the Aylmer area and attends church at Aylmer Christian Reformed Church.

“Well I’ve never been to heaven but I’ve been told”

“Hand me down my silver trumpet Gabriel”

“The gates are made of pearl and the streets are made of gold”

“Hand me down my silver trumpet Lord!”

Paul remembers singing this Afro-American Spiritual song in his grade 6 music class. It would have been sung by black slaves who had been brought to the United States to serve on plantations during the 1800′s. It always amazed Paul how these slaves, who in some cases were ridiculed, abused and beaten, could still sing such happy songs while they served. We often hear about our tithing at church that “the Lord loves a cheerful giver,” but this is also true about anything we give – even our service. We should be glad we can serve, but also have some fun with it too!

“Scott, please put your laundry away,” Scott’s Mom asked.

“Later, Mom. I’m watching TV,” Scott replied.

“I’d like you to do it now please,” Mom answered.

We are all called to serve, and the time to serve is now. When Jesus was called to heal the sick, what would have happened if He’d said, “Not now, I don’t feel like it.” When He was asked to make the lame man walk, what if He’d said, “Oh, maybe later. I’m watching TV right now.” Would the sick people have died and the lame man never stood on his feet? When we are given the task to serve, we should seize the moment wholeheartedly, because we never know when it might be too late.

When we have a headache, we don’t cure it with a Band-Aid. And when we clean the house inside, we don’t get out the garden hose. The Lord has prepared good works for us to do, but He has also given us the necessary spiritual gifts to do the task. Every one of us has at least one spiritual gift which we are to use to serve the Lord, as He calls us to do. Spiritual Gifts include:

Administration
Interpretation of Tongues
Creative Ability
Knowledge
Discernment
Leadership
Encouragement
Mercy
Evangelism
Miracles
Faith
Prophecy
Giving
Service
Healing
Shepherding
Hospitality
Teaching
Intercession
Tongues
Wisdom

Which gift have you used to serve today?

Do you have a foreign god? Any Christian asked this question would almost instantly answer “NO”, but if we were honest, we would all probably have to say “YES”.

Sandra is an avid gardener. She loves to spend time in the greens, enjoying the blossoms, weeding and learning about the beautiful flora our God has created. Her neighbour also loves to garden – so much so it’s almost an obsession. Sandra’s neighbour trims each bush and shrub to near perfection, dead-heads the flowers almost before they’re done blooming, and practically straightens every blade of grass in the lawn by hand. She loves to hear the compliments of those who visit her garden – so much so it is an obsession. Sandra tends her garden for God’s glory – it brightens up the neighbourhood and gives her a quiet place to spend time with Him. When we serve, let’s serve God and not a foreign god, for that’s really service to ourselves.