Author Archive

The Eye In The Sky

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Over the last 20 years, PresbyCan has published over 30 devotionals based on the usefulness of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in locating ourselves on a map, or directing us to a destination. Recently, I experienced a different … Read more

Calendar Savants

Thursday, December 28, 2023

I know of two people who can tell the day of the week for any date that one may give them. When I first met "Tony", he asked me when my birthday was, and without thinking about it, he told me correctly that it was on a Sunday. I tried … Read more

No Room At The Inn

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

When Mary, one of our readers, read a PresbyCan devotional about arriving at a hotel and finding it full, she was reminded of an event that happened to her family in 1983. We were travelling from … Read more

Artificial Intelligence

Monday, May 8, 2023

Several of my relatives have discovered that with proper instruction, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is capable of writing poetry, essays — the possibilities are endless. There are articles on how AI is going to impact society, like … Read more

To The Dentist

Saturday, June 12, 2021

In half an hour, I have an appointment at the dentist's office. The hygienist is going to clean my teeth. I immediately think to myself, My teeth feel really grungy from eating my porridge at breakfast. I'd better go and brush and floss.Read more

Thankful In All Circumstances

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Recently, I came across the story of Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran minister, who came to the German city of Eilenburg in 1637 near the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. Because the city was walled, it became overcrowded with refugees from … Read more

All Things For Good

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Recently, I've been thinking about the blessings that have come out of the self-isolation due to the current lockdown. For one thing, I have been grateful to God for the gift of time to improve the PresbyCan website. In early May, I began … Read more

When God Is Silent

Monday, April 13, 2020

Silence is truly powerful. For example, think of times when people get the silent treatment in their homes. It is a powerful form of punishment, because we know that there is a broken relationship involved, and we know that we should be … Read more

Wait On The Lord

Saturday, December 1, 2018

The day after Labour Day, my wife and I were returning from a lovely weekend away at our family cabin. Unfortunately, we were rear-ended in the rush-hour traffic, and the grey 2012 Toyota Matrix that I loved was written off as a total … Read more

Whatever Happened To Sin?

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Last summer, many parts of North America were plagued by wildfires. One of my friends was personally affected. Although his hay was burnt, his home was spared, but at the back of his property, a neighbour's ranch with cabins for tourist … Read more

Dense Smoke

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

One of the big news stories of the past summer was of the wildfires that plagued British Columbia, Canada. Two months without rain made the forests tinder-dry. Lightning storms lit new fires day after day, and high winds spread them … Read more

The Renovation

Sunday, October 15, 2017

This past winter, our family decided to renovate the kitchen in the cabin at our waterfront property on the coast of British Columbia, Canada. We had to rip out the old cupboards and wallboard, trash the old rusty range, roll up the … Read more

The View From Above

Monday, October 2, 2017

This past summer, friends of ours flew in unexpectedly to nearby Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for a holiday. By the time that we had found out about their visit, they had already rented bicycles and cycled all around the lengthy … Read more

Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Last summer, my daughter, her husband and their young family travelled through Washington State, USA, on their way to Yellowstone Park. They stopped in a little Bavarian-themed town called Leavenworth, to look around. One of the stores … Read more

Old Faithful

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Last summer, our family took a trip that included Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming, USA. We learned that the park is situated over a dome of lava near the surface of the earth that creates a "hot spot" that fuels a huge number of … Read more

The Roundabout

Monday, September 12, 2016

At the end of June, we had a wonderful opportunity to visit the countryside of Italy. We exulted in the sense of history as we visited ancient villages perched atop extinct volcanic buttes with steep cliffs and walls for protection from … Read more

All One Body

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

In years past, I have chronicled the development of the PresbyCan Daily Devotional in devotionals like " Bread On The Waters ", " Death Of A Vision ", and " What God Has Prepared ", but each of them has focused on what happened in myRead more

Mistaken

Thursday, March 31, 2016

How is it that so often, something happens, and later, as we think it over, we realize that we had a perfect opportunity to talk to someone about Jesus, but we weren't able to think fast enough? To get my needed walking exercise (and get … Read more

The Piece In The Corner

Friday, January 29, 2016

Last fall, I worked off and on at installing laminate flooring in two bedrooms and the hallway of our small bungalow. This last week, I finished the second phase in our front hall. All the while, I kept thinking that there must be a … Read more

What God Has Prepared

Monday, May 25, 2015

On this day nineteen years ago, the very first PresbyCan Daily Devotional was published on the fledgling, experimental PCCWeb site. But recently, I have been remembering events that God prepared which stretch back much farther than … Read more

Little Ol' Me

Friday, February 27, 2015

An outstanding memory from my youth stems from when I was only ten years old. I was sitting alone in the third pew on the left-hand side of the church in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada, of which my dad was the minister and my mom was the … Read more

Slave Labour

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Since 1961, our family has owned waterfront property up the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Most mornings during our holidays, we could be found sitting on the patio with coffee cups in our hands, gazing up the beautiful inlet. … Read more

Birthday Candles

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Throughout my ministry, Christmas Eve was always a high point of the year, and some years, I put a lot of effort into developing a themed script, illustrated with projected slides. After the children portrayed the nativity story, we would … Read more

The End Of An Era

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

For over twenty years, I have delivered one of the two free community newspapers in our town. They were both originally published three times a week, but that has recently been cut to two editions, undoubtedly because of diminishing … Read more

Spider Webs

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

In the early fall, one thing that I always notice as I'm delivering the community newspaper on my route is the abundance of spider webs. It seems that the tiny creatures sense the onset of winter and prepare by working assiduously to … Read more

Tsunami Hazard Zone

Friday, September 6, 2013

In August, our family spent a week on the coast of Oregon, U.S.A. Each day, we observed the power of the waves coming in off the open Pacific Ocean, and each night, we camped within the sound of their roaring. As I played with the children … Read more

Do The Stones Need To Shout?

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Apart from Easter, no day on the Christian calendar is so blatantly joyous as Palm Sunday. As we picture the scene, we see Jesus seated on a young donkey, entering Jerusalem in the traditional way of a king coming in peace. He was greeted … Read more

Change And Pain

Sunday, January 27, 2013

In the summer of 2010, the Daily Devotional sponsored a tour of central Europe, featuring the Oberammergau Passion Play. Within city after city, we visited the "old city", with narrow cobblestone streets and buildings that dated back to … Read more

The Essential Character

Friday, December 7, 2012

As I was remembering past Christmases, an incident came to mind from the very first year of my former ministry here in Mission, British Columbia, Canada, back in 1987.

Enthusiasm was high in the congregation, and they decided to tackle … Read more

If Only They'd Told Me

Monday, November 26, 2012

I found yesterday's devotional interesting, because my experience parallels Isabel Allison's in the confusion we experienced when comparing our conversion to the apostle Paul's. In a children's crusade when I was seven years old, the … Read more

Detour

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Recently, we flew across North America to visit our son and his family, who had just received a precious baby girl. Children are very expensive, as we know, and this one necessitated a larger vehicle. With no space left in … Read more

The Pioneers

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

We don't usually get much snow in the corner of Canada where we live, but sometimes we really get it. That happened in January, when over a period of several days, we received successive dumps of snow, accompanied by a … Read more

Divine Guidance

Friday, October 7, 2011

At the end of August, we were visiting family at a lake house they had rented in Connecticut, USA, when Hurricane Irene struck. We "evacuated" to their home in New York State, and watched the television in horror at the … Read more

 



PresbyCan is a community of faithful, Holy Spirit-filled, Christ-centred, God-honouring Christians.