The Wonderful Exchange

I've enjoyed reading through John Calvin's, Institutes in 2009. This morning, I started reading the section on the Lord's Supper. This line was particularly helpful, when writing about our union with Christ as a special fruit of the Lord's Supper (I have added the breaks):

This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; that,

• becoming Son of man with us, he has made us sons of God with Him
• by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us
• by taking on our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us
• accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power
• receiving our poverty unto himself, he has transferred his wealth to us
• taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself, he has clothed us with his righteousness

A Tribute on Orphan Sunday

The Christian Alliance for Orphans has designated this coming Sunday, November 8th, "Orphan Sunday." Many different churches will be marking this occasion with sermons, videos, testimonies, songs, etc. You can see some of the goings-on at the Orphan Sunday website. I was a little late hearing about that this year and we had other things planned at church, but we'll mark the occasion next year, d.v.

In it's stead, I thought I'd share a tribute to my friends, Lee and Anna Dyck. Here is a portion of their adoption story.

Three years ago my wife and I were challenged with the need to pursue adopting a baby with Down syndrome when we discovered, among other things, that the termination rate for mothers who test positive for having a baby with Down syndrome is between 80 and 90%. This past December the Lord answered our prayers with a beautiful baby girl named Emma, pictured here with her equally beautiful mommy.

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction." - James 1:27

Pastoral Training in La Belle Province.

When I was at the Together for the Gospel (T4G) Conference in 2008, I was thrilled to meet some of my Canadian brothers in Christ from Quebec. The Gospel is moving forward in that predominantly secular province, largely through the pastoral training that is taking place by the folks at SEMBEQ Seminary in Montreal.

Over the years, SEMBEQ has brought in the likes of John MacArthur and D.A Carson for training seminars. I was grateful this morning to hear of the partnership between SEMBEQ with Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF).

If you want to hear more about the work of SEMBEQ, CCEF has posted an interview they recently did with Francois Turcotte and Francois Picard.