Author: Jim Cantelon

Read Acts 3 & 4

Key Verse: Acts 4:20 “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (NIV) The trouble started the afternoon Peter and John went up to the temple to pray. Until now they had enjoyed “the favour of all the people” (2:47). But then a crippled beggar called out to them for money. They were broke — but they did give him something. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth”, they commanded him to get those crippled legs in motion and walk. And he did…to the amazement of the whole city! Now the polarization began. The people, of course,...

December 16, 2020

Matthew 5 Love & Hatred vv.43-48 The love of enemies is the ethical bottomline of the Sermon on The Mount. It seems impossible – as does being “perfect” in v. 48. Mind you, to love your enemy is possible, in that love is essentially volitional. On the other hand, to like your enemy is virtually impossible because “like” is solely emotional. To love is to do. To like is to feel. Love is unconditional. Like has conditions. Jesus calls on us to “pray for” our enemies. This is hard to do. Indeed an ancient preacher named Chrystotom called prayer for...

Read Acts 1 & 2

Key Verse: Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” One of the key factors in the success of the early church was the uncontested fact of the resurrection. I say “uncontested” in terms of the believers themselves and the incontrovertible evidence of Jesus’ appearances over a period of forty days after the resurrection. Don’t forget that the disciples had deserted Jesus when He needed them most, and had gone into hiding to avoid being crucified themselves as “collaborators”....

Read John 20 & 21

Key Verse: John 20:28 “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!'” Arthur John Gossip writes, “That night that Christ came, Thomas had not been present. We do not know why. But is there not here a warning for us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together? How much many miss, who make only an occasional, spasmodic, irregular appearance at the worship of God in his house! ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’, so Christ promises (Mt. 18:20). And sometimes surely had they been there,...

Read John 19

Key Verse: John 19:38b (NIV) “Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.” After recording the events of the crucifixion and the touching scene around the foot of the cross, when Jesus entrusts His mother to John’s keeping and care, John tells us about the burial. We might have expected the twelve disciples to come out of hiding, convicted in heart of their cowardice in deserting Jesus, and take the body down from the cross. Instead, we see two heretofore secret disciples, and the most unlikely candidates for the task. Nicodemus and Joseph of...

Read John 17 & 18

Key Verse: John 17:26 “I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known…” Chapter 17 is known as Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” for His disciples. It gives special insight into Jesus’ assessment of His own ministry. It also helps us see what He expected of His Father in terms of the ongoing life of the church-to-be. First, let’s look at Jesus’ self-assessment. What did He do? It shouldn’t surprise us that the number one thing Jesus did was to make the Father glorious on earth. “I have brought You glory…”...

Read John 15 & 16

Key Verse: John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” I’m afraid a lot of us see God as a celestial errand-boy. He’s there to do our will, meet our needs. And some of us have adopted various “get-what-you-want” systems. We think we know how to manipulate Him: all you need is to master the right praise system or prayer system and the magic button reveals itself — push and enjoy. And to add fuel to our fire, we quote half truths, or whole truths out of context. For instance, “…ask...

December 9, 2020

Matt. 5 Retaliation vv. 38-42 – Part 2 Essentially what Jesus is saying here is that we are not to take the law into our own hands. Wrong done to us by an “evil” person does not justify out doing a wrong in return. Indeed, when wrong is met with wrong, the cycle of injustice only gains momentum. This is what fuels feuds. So Jesus does what he sometimes does: he utilizes hyperbole. Someone strikes your right cheek? Let him hit you on the left as well. Someone wants to sue the shirt off your back? Give him your coat, too. Nip the revenge reflex in the bud. Let God sort things...

Read John 14

Key Verse: John 14:2 “I go to prepare a place for you.” The death of a loved one always catches us off guard. We may have known for months that the tumour was malignant and our loved one was living with a six month sentence; but when the moment of death occurs, we’re not as ready for it as we thought. The next few days are a flurry of activity — phone calls to relatives and friends, visits to the undertaker, visits from those same relatives and friends, family meetings, and finally the funeral itself. After the interment, there’s usually a social time, lots of tears,...

Read John 13

Key Verse: John 13:16 “…a servant is not greater than his master…” I think most of us have the instinctive ability to discern between the merely obsequious and the purely altruistic. Huh? How’s that again? What I mean is, we can usually tell when someone is being self-serving even while appearing to be serving us. And we can tell when someone is helping us purely for our sake, with no ulterior motive. In most cases, the altruistic person is ministering from a position of strength; not physical, mental, or financial strength, necessarily, but from moral strength....

Read John 12

Key Verse: John 12:43 “…they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” The Sanhedrin was the ruling council of Jerusalem. They were Pharisees of high education, wealth and reputation who acted as judges, or rulers, over the Jewish people. Under the high priest, they acted as a sort of “Supreme Court”, meeting from time to time as the situation warranted. In this chapter we read that “many even among the rulers believed” in Jesus. But they did so secretly, because their political survival depended on “the praise of men more than the...

December 7, 2020

We just celebrated the first Sunday of Advent. Christmas is less than a month away! The long established magic of the season is trying to gain traction, but Covid is pushing back. The online shopping, house decorating (apparently there’s a huge run on Christmas trees),and Zoom connections are all in gear, but the elephant in the room is “Code Red” restrictions on gatherings. In our area we’re told to stay home without outside guests on Christmas Day. What?! For sure this will be a December 25th like never before. Are we ready for it? Will it be a downer or will we dig deep and find some...