Tag: James Cantelon

Sept 2, 2026

It’s a challenge these days to lift our eyes and thoughts above the sorrows that plague our world. The recent flooding in Nepal has us all sighing and praying. At times like these (everyday times!) we can and must turn to the scriptures. There are so many encouraging passages. Here’s some excerpts from Psalm 89 (NLT): “I will sing of the LORD’S unfailing love forever! Young and old will hear of your faithfulness … O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies! Where is there anyone as mighty as you, O LORD? … The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours … you created it all … You...

Aug 05, 2026

Maybe for the first time in our lives many if not all of western nations are feeling a new sense of vulnerability. It’s not only the rising fear of the escalation of war, with the entire Middle East on the verge, but also the hacking of water systems, and, as one recent headline put it,”the world is on fire”. The raging wildfires in Europe and North America have us all on edge. We need help, not from governments but from Above. More prayer is being prayed than ever before. We need divine intervention. We need salvation from our own warlike tendencies and from an angry planet. Indeed we need...

July 22, 2026

Most of the world (at last count 1 1/2 billion!) were watching the World Cup last week. The “beautiful game”. The world’s most popular game called “football”( which we call “soccer”). It was intriguing and almost addictive. But beyond the televised drama there were several social media posts with pics of opposing teammates in prayer huddles after the games. Added to that were personal testimonials from star players about their faith in Jesus. These were bookended by strong statements of faith from Spain’s winning manager Luis de la Fuente. He spoke boldly about his faith stating that life...

June 24, 2026

We’ve all experienced from time to time what the Spanish poet and mystic St.John of the cross referred to as “a dark night of the soul”. Or, as Psalm 23 puts it, “the valley of the shadow of death”. Darkness and despair haunt the night for countless souls. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, or so it seems. I remember as if it were yesterday a dark valley my family went through when our daughter’s husband was tragically killed in a construction accident while teaching at a university in Zambia. My immediate response as she tearfully told me via a...

April 29, 2026

Like you I’m very concerned about the state of our world. From space, as we witnessed last month through the Artemis astronauts’ pictures, earth is a jewel beyond compare. Truly a “spaceship” for billions of us in the dark matter of a seemingly infinite universe. The astronauts saw no boundaries on earth, no war, no power struggles, indeed no conflict of any kind. Just beauty and peace. I wish that were true for us on the ground. We’ve never seen such turmoil. Never such human suffering. Never such evil. We need help. We need to look up. So here’s a word from King David as he praised the...

March 18, 2026

During a time of war it’s not unusual for us to be overly pessimistic or optimistic. Sometimes we’re simply negatively or positively trite, as in “all is lost” or “it’ll all work out for the best”. A third alternative is to quote the Bible. For instance: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.’ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with his feathers, and under His...

Feb 04, 2026

The book of Job is regarded by most commentators as the oldest book in the Bible. It’s a remarkable work dealing with the universal theme of suffering and evil. The troubles described bear a remarkable resemblance to much of what we face here in the 21st century let alone what humanity has dealt with over aeons. Perhaps one of the most quotable quotes comes from Eliphaz, one of Job’s three “comforters”: “Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Or to put it in other words, “Life happens”, and it’s not always a happy happening. When we look at the last hundred years...