Posted on 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.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Spring Is On Its Way!

Public domain from PXfuel

The shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere is the winter solstice, which occurred last year on December 21st. From that day on, the days begin to lengthen and the sun’s position in the sky begins to rise from our perspective.

But if the days are now getting longer and we’re getting more sunlight, why does it keep getting colder and snowier here in January and February?

Where is spring?

There are two reasons for this temperature lag: one having to do with the tilt of the earth, the other with how slowly the earth heats up and cools down in response to the sun’s energy.

Think of a rock near a bonfire. When the fire is first lit, the rock will stay cool for a while. It takes time for it to heat up, even though it’s being exposed to a roaring fire. The rock will eventually absorb the fire’s heat, though, and will retain that heat for a while even after the fire is put out.

Similarly, even though the days are now lengthening, it takes time for the earth to warm up, resulting in colder temperatures in the early months of the year. The earth is also slow to release accumulated heat energy from the sun after the summer solstice in June. This gives us hotter July and August days in the northern hemisphere, even as the days are getting shorter.

In the same way, sometimes we pray about something but don’t see any immediate results. There seems to be an inexplicable “lag” in receiving answers to our prayers. We don’t see any evidence that things are changing; in fact, our situation might seem to get worse.

What’s going on? Where is our “spring”?

I think we need to understand that God can answer our prayers in several ways.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Best Fire Protection

Baked Alaska dessert set alight. Image by Vxla on Flickr. CC BY-2.0

Baked Alaska is one of those desserts that seems like it will end in disaster.

This dessert involves covering a core of ice cream and cake with meringue and baking it at 450-500 degrees Fahrenheit. Really.

Who puts ice cream in a hot oven anyway?

Surely it will result in a melted mess, and you’ll be spending the next hour resentfully scrubbing out your oven.

But Baked Alaska will surprise and amaze you.

When you take this dessert out of the oven after a few minutes, you find that the meringue has cooked and slightly browned, but the ice cream underneath it is still cold and has retained its firm shape. The ice cream inside the “igloo” has remained untouched by the intense heat.

It seems miraculous, because you’d think that ice cream would melt when it came anywhere near temperatures that high. It’s not actually a miracle, however, but rather a clever application of physics. The dessert was invented in the 1800s by American physicist Benjamin Thompson, who was investigating the insulating properties of whipped egg whites.

If you want a genuine example of miraculous protection from a hot oven, you need to go the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Angels Are Fighting For You

Image of the Northern Lights by Noel Bauza from Pixabay

If you’re lucky enough to have seen the Northern or Southern Lights, what do you think you’re seeing?

This spectacular light display, called the aurora borealis or australis, is usually confined to the high latitudes at the Earth’s poles.

Many people view these shifting ribbons of light as a sort of otherworldly dance in the sky. Others see the swirling colours as a mystical painting come to life. Some indigenous peoples believed the eerie, glowing streamers were ancestral spirits.

But when you look at the auroras, what you’re really seeing is a battle.

The entrancing, ghostly lights result from charged particles from the Sun interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. These particles, borne on the solar wind, are constantly bombarding our planet. At times they’re more intense, as during periods of high sunspot activity.

The Earth’s magnetic field protects us from this barrage of particles, like a “deflector shield” in a science fiction movie. Without this protection, the solar wind would eventually kill us.

Our magnetic field is always there, an invisible but highly effective shield. It deflects 98% of the particles spewed out by the Sun in our direction, but is slightly weaker near the poles. During the ethereal display known as the Northern and Southern Lights, our magnetic blanket becomes visible as it works to protect us.

What we see as an intriguing and beautiful phenomenon is actually visible evidence of a fierce battle going on for our lives.

Likewise, in life, sometimes we don’t fully understand the battles that are raging behind the scenes.

Unknowingly, as we go about our daily lives, believers are being protected by heavenly forces from harm. We usually can’t see these protective beings, but they’re there nonetheless, working on our behalf.

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