Articles
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Counter-intuitive: lifetime employment makes financial sense
by COG Nanaimo on Mar.18, 2010, under Articles, Jeff Patton
If you believe mainstream economists, we are on the path leading out of “The Great Recession.” But even if this is true, there are a whole lot of jobs in North America, millions of jobs that need to be re-created just to get back to pre-2008 levels.
Honesty
by COG Nanaimo on Mar.14, 2010, under Articles, Rebecca Stewart
Honesty can be such a little thing, but the most important thing. There is no growth or change without it. It informs our conscience and provides the foundation and direction for our life.
Have you ever gone through the check-out line and just as you step away having paid for your purchases you look down at the foot of your cart and see a large item, say, toilet paper. This happened to me recently and not being too sure of my memory these days a little worm of doubt burrowed its way into my mind. Had I paid for this? No one else was worried about it if I had proceeded to walk out the door, and it was only six dollars of goods. But my conscience is a fragile and precious thing, so I stopped, turned, and asked if the cashier had included this purchase? No, she had not. So she rang it up. I paid and then left – with a clear conscience.
Reaping what we sow–gendercide and abortion
by COG Nanaimo on Mar.14, 2010, under Articles, Jeff Patton
“The right to liberty… guarantees a degree of personal autonomy over important decisions intimately affecting his or her private life. … The decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy is essentially a moral decision and in a free and democratic society, the conscience of the individual must be paramount to that of the state.” (Morgentaler et al. v. Her Majesty The Queen, [1988] 1 S.C.R. 30 at 37)
Seeing Through A Glass Darkly
by COG Nanaimo on Jan.21, 2010, under Articles, Jean Jantzen
Most have read the books or watched the series Anne of Green Gables. Anne’s house, Green Gable’s on PEI suffered fire damage. People were emotionally distraught over this fire. Even though Anne is a fictitious character, people from around the world flock to see her supposed childhood home. Why is that? For many of us, for one reason or another, at one time or another, we have suffered the same pain as Anne. I was talking to one elderly gentleman who was orphaned at about twelve years of age and he said “I felt great comfort from Anne’s story.” Over the centuries Christians have suffered rejection, persecution; they were hated by the world. Jesus tells us straight forward “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:19,20). For eleven long heart-breaking years, Anne suffers complete rejection. But there is more to the story than Anne’s pain. She made it! And she did it with courage, grit and determination. Anne’s story gives people hope—hope that they too can triumph over life’s inequities.
Held Together by a Spiritual Thread
by COG Nanaimo on Jan.21, 2010, under Articles, Jean Jantzen
God has called us to be part of something bigger than ourselves—family—a Church family now, then God’s family at the return of Jesus Christ. Life in our Church family can prepare us for that millennial family.
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.
—Richard Bach
For the Love of a Father
by COG Nanaimo on Jan.21, 2010, under Articles, Jean Jantzen
Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.
(Ruth E. Renkel)
By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder — infinitely prouder — to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle field but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, “Our Father Who Art in Heaven”.
(Macarthur, Douglas 1880-1964 American Army General in WW II)
The Beginning of Wisdom
by COG Nanaimo on Jan.21, 2010, under Articles, Jean Jantzen
Don’t think you’re on the right road, just because it’s a well-beaten path
The inclination of 20th century societies to disregard God has resulted in social degeneration foreseen in the first chapter of Romans as a direct result of failing to fear God. “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God…”so God gave them their pleasure in unrighteousness, certainly not as a reward, but as a curse. And what a curse it has proven to be!
