Sointula Community Church

04/09/2026

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."

As you read these words, they are likely familiar.

Maybe you've heard them taught in a Sunday school class, recited in a church service, or sung in a beautiful arrangement.

However you've come across these words, you know that they are the beginning of something deeply significant - the Lord's prayer.

Christ, in teaching His disciples to pray, begins with this introduction.

Consider that for a moment - these are the opening words of one of the most important prayers of all time.

These words bear a gravity that we can only begin to understand.

Having said that, I was really struck by this introduction during a recent prayer time.

The phrase that absolutely stopped me in my tracks was simply this: "...hallowed be your name."

We've all likely heard, prayed, or recited these words at some time, but do we really understand the implications of them?

His name is holy.

His name is greater.

His name is set apart.

So, how does this affect the way in which we handle His name?

Do we approach it with honour, the way we would treat something of immense value, or do we toss it around thoughtlessly?

Do we show it respect, being careful of the context and manner in which we speak it, or do we spit it out as a profane punctuation mark, cheapening it to emphasize our jokes and outbursts?

Do we respect God's name as hallowed, or do we demean it as something far less?

Next time we are about to speak His name, let's take a moment to truly consider the weight of these words:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."

-Ben

04/01/2026

02/12/2026

I have a favourite frying pan.

There, I said it: I have a favourite frying pan.

This is a relatively new development for me.

You don't usually hear people in their teens or twenties pontificating about the merits of their favourite frying pans, but when you hit your mid-thirties or forties, all bets are off.

My frying pan is just the right size - not too big, but large enough that you can fry multiple eggs without them turning into one giant amorphous blob of white and yellow.

It heats up nice and even without any noticeable hotspots.

It's just a nice frying pan.

But here's the thing: no matter how much a person waxes lyrical about a frying pan, it's still just a frying pan.

On its own it cannot fry a single egg.

On its own it is incapable of heating up evenly; for that matter, on its own it can't heat up at all.

On its own it is just a cold frying pan, and a cold frying pan is a useless frying pan.

A frying pan only becomes useful when you place it on a source of heat.

It only begins to do what it was designed to do when it has a source of power behind it.

In that sense, we are kind of like frying pans…

As Christians, we can look like we are doing a great job of following Jesus.

We can look like we have it all together, like we know what we're doing.

We can even inspire others to follow Jesus too - or be inspired by others to follow Jesus more closely!

Like my favourite frying pan, we can do what we were designed to do.

This is not a bad thing, so long as we don't forget one very significant point:

We are all just frying pans.

And like a frying pan needs a source of heat to do what it was designed to do, so we rely on a source of power to be who we are designed to be.

Paul makes this abundantly clear in Ephesians 2:8-9:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

It is only through the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that any of us are saved.

We don't earn it, we can't achieve it, and we don't deserve it.

We are His workmanship - He has created us - and He has not only saved us, but He is faithful to work in us and through us as we seek to follow Him.

We have the privilege of living our lives for His glory, by His strength, walking in the good deeds that He has prepared for us.

Having received salvation through Christ, we are designed to live lives that glorify God - but just like my frying pan, we cannot do it on our own.

May our lives always point to the source - the One who truly deserves all of the glory.

Ben

12/25/2025

If you spend any time at all watching TV, you are bound to see advertisements for products designed to reduce the signs of aging, banish the appearance of wrinkles, improve your health and/or attractiveness (usually with no effort whatsoever on your part), and generally keep you looking and feeling younger than you are.

We see actors playing carefree games of football, whitewater kayaking, and even skydiving, all with permanent smiles plastered across their airbrushed faces.

It all looks like it would be such a blast, but I know full well that it would have me reaching for the Advil in short order.

See, we as a people are enamoured with living.

We love the idea of retaining our youthful vigour, even though we groan slightly as we get off the couch.

We love the idea of retaining our youthful age, even though our birthday cake becomes more of a fire hazard every year.

And we love the idea of retaining our youthful looks, even though the stranger in the mirror resembles us less and less each morning.

We love to live.

So how do we, as lovers of life, grapple with the concept of Jesus?

"...Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." ~Philippians 2:5b-8

As we celebrate Christmas, we tend to focus on the Christ-child in the manger; there is nothing wrong with this, but in this passage Paul reminds us that the baby in the manger is part of a much larger picture.

Jesus wasn't just born so that shepherds and wisemen could visit Him, He was born for something greater.

Jesus was born to die.

He came to die so that you and I could know true life - life that is so much more than just smooth skin and sky-diving.

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." John 10:10b

-Ben

12/23/2025

A big congratulations to the Gillnet Rug Raffle Winner Penny Cadorin!
Thank you to everyone who bought and sold tickets, and a HUGE thank you to Heather Orr Lansdowne for her hard work in making and donating the rug.

12/16/2025

Hope to see you there

12/15/2025

One more week to get your tickets for this gorgeous Gillnet Rug Raffle made by Heather Orr Lansdowne.
Tickets are available at the Sointula Resource Centre, the Sointula Gas Bar, and by E-Transfer. The ticket will be drawn Sunday evening.
Just in time for Christmas 🎄

12/04/2025

I once had a friend with a cell phone.

It was a nice cell phone - an expensive one with many bells and whistles, and it was in good working condition.

It was capable of calling, texting, running apps, playing games, and browsing the web, among other things.

And yet, they hated it.

Every time I would visit, I would see this cell phone sitting on the kitchen table.

I would normally walk by without a word, but one day I decided to say something...

"That's a nice cell phone you've got there." I mentioned casually.

They frowned and told me that they didn't like it.

"It never works!" they huffed.

I wondered what was wrong with it, and asked as much.

"It's always dead." came the reply.

I asked how often they charged it, and quickly discovered the problem.

They didn't much care for their phone, so they rarely remembered to plug it in. It just sat on the kitchen table, dead.

When they would plug it in, it would work for a day or so, and then it would die and be returned to the kitchen table once again.

It seemed so strange to me that this friend would have such a nice cell phone and yet disregard it in such a manner, but sometimes we can act in eerily similar ways.

How often do our Bibles get relegated to the "kitchen table"? Maybe it's a dusty spot on the bookshelf, or maybe it's a forgotten corner of our nightstand. Either way, like my friend's cell phone, our Bibles can be forgotten in these places for long stretches of time.

But here's the interesting twist:

Unlike that cell phone, a Bible abandoned on the shelf will never lose it's charge; it is the Holy Word of God, and nothing will ever change that.

The thing is, if we leave our Bibles on our shelves, they may not lose their charge, but we will most certainly lose ours!

Jesus speaks to this when he quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in His response to Satan's tempting:

But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

May we not be found dead on the kitchen table, but rather fully and frequently charged by the Word of God!

-Ben

11/16/2025

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11/09/2025

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11/06/2025

Years ago Anna and I were down island on holidays, and I thought it would be fun to hit a bucket of balls at a driving range.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of a golfer, but every once in a while it is enjoyable to just send one golf ball after another into the vast and forgiving expanse of the driving range!

With that in mind, we found the address of a nearby golf course and we hit the road.

We arrived at the golf course as expected, but as I was pulling my thrift store golf clubs out of the trunk of our car I could tell that something was very different about this place.

For starters, all of the people were wearing fancy golfing outfits, and they were beginning to look sideways at me in my blue jeans and T-shirt.

This was but a sign of things to come.

As we entered the club house to pay for a bucket of balls, I was asked if I had proper apparel to change into...

I did not.

Despite my lack of classy duds, the lady behind the counter decided (probably against her better judgement) to sell me a bucket and direct me toward the driving range.

I figured all of this was weird, but how bad could it really be, right?

What followed was the most awkward bucket of golf balls that I have ever hit in my entire life.

I was not dressed like everyone else at the driving range.

I was not equipped with brand new clubs like everyone else at the driving range.

I clearly had less experience and skill than everyone else at the driving range.

And I was made to feel unwelcome by everyone else at the driving range.

I had accidentally entered into an exclusive club, and it was clear that I did not belong.

The whole thing was extremely uncomfortable.

Anyhow, as I was pondering this cherished memory recently, a thought struck me:

In John 14 Jesus makes the following statement:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

This statement explicitly lays out the fact that the only way to salvation is through Jesus - all other ways are false and futile.

So, if we take Christ at His word here, then Christianity is kind of an exclusive club just like that golf course.

But here's the thing: you and I don't want to be anything like that golf course, right?

We don't want people to feel unwelcome, unworthy, or unwanted like I did at the driving range.

So how can we, as messengers of an exclusive salvation, be certain that this never happens?

For starters, by keeping a few things in mind:

1. You and I did not attain our own worthiness, we found it in Christ alone.

2. You and I have never locked eyes with a person whom God does not love deeply and desire to save.

3. You and I are not called to lord our salvation over others, but to freely share the good news of Jesus Christ with them.

Yes, Christ is exclusively 'the way, and the truth, and the life', but unlike that golf course, He is not interested in turning away everyone without 'proper apparel'.

Rather, as John 3:16 reminds us, He longs to welcome 'whoever believes in him' into His saving grace and 'eternal life'.

May we be ambassadors of God's exclusive salvation as we speak His truth, live His love, and welcome others into His abundant life!

-Ben