church – The Faith Cafe

Posted on November 12, 2025November 12, 2025 by Lori Cartmell

5 Messages Christians Send When They Compromise

A little compromise never hurt anyone, did it?

I don’t mean the kind of beneficial compromising we do to make a relationship more harmonious or a business arrangement go more smoothly.

I’m getting at the negative type of compromising that often seeps into our Christian walk.

For instance, we might skimp on practices like Bible reading, praying, or even attending church if there are things we’d rather spend our time on.

At work, we might “go along to get along,” putting up with ethical practices that aren’t congruent with our Christian beliefs.

At school, we might keep quiet about issues we don’t agree with because we’d sooner not rock the boat.

In relationships with non-Christians, we might adopt behaviours that are at odds with our faith just to fit in.

Ring any bells?

We might think that these types of compromises are harmless, but our behaviours are actually sending messages, inadvertent though they may be.

Posted on August 27, 2025August 26, 2025 by Lori Cartmell

Which Body Part Are You?

Don’t you just love cookies shaped like little people, such as gingerbread men and women?

I always start munching on gingerbread people at the head. According to a survey conducted by the folks at Dunkin’ Donuts, I’m not alone. Almost two thirds of people surveyed start at the top when eating a gingerbread figure. A fifth of people begin with the legs, while the remainder go for the arms first. (To make some gingerbread people yourself, see below for a classic recipe.)

We seem to have a penchant for foods shaped like bodies, or at least named after various body parts.

There are chicken fingers, kidney beans, artichoke hearts, navel oranges, black-eyed peas, heads of lettuce, ladyfingers and elbow macaroni.

The Italians have given us pasta shapes like orecchiette (little ears), linguini (little tongues), and capellini (angel’s hair). In France, cotton candy is called, “Dad’s beard.”

Our bodies are precious to us and are wondrously made, so it’s no wonder we pay tribute to them by naming foods after our various body parts.

But did you know that if you’re a believer, you don’t just have your own body, you’re a part of another body, too?

Scripture tells us that those who follow Jesus are all parts of the body of Christ.

“Our bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together. So it is with the ‘body’ of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12)

“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27)

Posted on April 23, 2025April 16, 2025 by Lori Cartmell

A Cruciform Life

There are some things that can only be seen if you take a bird’s-eye view.

It’s only when you look down from a great height that you realize that the artificial island of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai is designed to resemble a palm tree.

You only really get a sense of why the Pentagon was given its name when you view this building from above and see its five-sided shape.

Someone at ground level in Nazca, Peru, might completely miss the fact that the lines etched into the desert sands at their feet actually form massive shapes of animals and plants. The full designs can only be seen from up high.

Similarly, it might not be obvious to you when entering certain churches that the outline of the building itself forms a cross when viewed from above.

Many European cathedrals feature a cross-shaped floor plan. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is prime example of a cruciform building.

I like to think that when God looks down at these buildings from above, it pleases Him to see a cross reflected back at Him.

Here’s a question for you:

When God looks down from above at your life, does He see the Cross reflected in how you live? How “cruciform” is your life?

Posted on December 4, 2023November 14, 2023 by Lori Cartmell

I’m Dreaming of an Orange Christmas

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

What if all you got for Christmas was an orange?

You’d no doubt feel disappointed and short-changed, as though Scrooge had been put in charge of the gift-giving this year.

A measly orange? Where was the new big-screen TV you were expecting? Or the latest iPhone you thought would be in your Christmas stocking?

Actually, there was a time when receiving an orange for Christmas was considered a special treat. Oranges were once so rare in northern countries that Christmas was the only time you would splurge on them, and they came to symbolize the holiday season. In some families, an orange would be the only present you’d receive, and you would be thankful for it.

These days, we receive so many gifts that one individual present doesn’t stand out as much. Not only that, we seem to expect increasingly expensive gifts as the years go by.

Surveys show that the average American will spend about $1,000 on Christmas each year, which includes gifts, food, and decorations. Parents spend an average of $200-$300 per child on Christmas presents for their offspring.

That would buy a lot of oranges!

But with all this spending, we don’t seem to cherish the most important gift enough:

Jesus.

Somehow the incalculable worth of the gift of Jesus to humankind gets lost in the mix.

So how do we return to viewing the celebration of the birth of the Christ child as central to our Christmas celebrations?

Posted on May 20, 2021May 2, 2021 by Lori Cartmell

Leave The Gate Open

As I was doing some yard clean-up in my front garden the other day, I accidentally startled a wild rabbit who had been nibbling on the grass nearby.

Alarmed, he made a dash for the backyard, where I knew the rabbits had made a home in the dense shrubbery in the corner.

The only problem was that I’d closed the gate to the backyard. The rabbit couldn’t get to safety.

The rabbit looked at me nervously, then ran all the way around the perimeter of the fence to where there was another access point the bunnies could use to get into the backyard.

I felt bad that I’d closed off the direct route to his home, and vowed to always leave the back gate slightly ajar for my wild rabbit friends.

It struck me that there was a lesson here for believers.

When it comes to unbelievers, do we “leave the gate open,” so to speak, at our churches?

Or do we put so many obstructions in their way that they find it hard to reach the safety of God’s arms?

Posted on March 18, 2021March 10, 2021 by Lori Cartmell · 2 Comments

Have Faith, And Bring Your Umbrella!

If you’re a gardener, you know that when you plant seeds in the ground, you can expect results.

Not every seed will germinate, but a great many will. So you need to make preparations beforehand.

For instance, if you’ve planted seeds of climbing plants, you’ll need to provide something for them to cling to as they grow upward. Even if your pea or bean seeds haven’t germinated yet, you still might prepare some trellises or stakes for their eventual growth.

You wouldn’t think of not getting ready for the emergence of your seedlings and adult plants, would you? You have faith that they’re on the way.

Isn’t it funny, then, that when we pray and ask God for things, we often don’t really expect we’ll see any results?

Posted on April 2, 2020April 1, 2020 by Lori Cartmell

Solidarity With the Persecuted Church

Photo by Imagens Cristas on Flickr
CC BY-NC 2.0

For those of us who are regular church-goers, the cessation of regular worship gatherings due to the coronavirus has been wrenching.

With churches shuttered temporarily, the children’s and youth activities, Bible studies, and men’s and women’s groups that they housed have had to close down along with them. Sure, some churches have switched to live-streamed Sunday services and online gatherings, but we’re not able to meet in person to worship or fellowship like we used to.

We probably feel a little hard done by, don’t we?

But there’s one group of Christians for whom these sorts of restrictions have long been an all too familiar reality:

The Persecuted Church.