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Magazine, Past Issue

July/Aug 2025 issue

WHAT'S INSIDE: Screen-fast, sports betting, & environmental stewardship

Our 10-day screen-fast challenge that we presented in the last issue is getting traction. Marty VanDriel has a story that shares how the fast went for him and others who gave it a try.

But that was just the start. Some generous supporters have recognized how important this issue is, so they are offering up a little extra motivation for us all. They have pledged to donate $100 to two fantastic kingdom causes – Word & Deed and Reformed Perspective – for every person who commits to and completes a 10-day fast from their screens from July 21- 30 (to a maximum of $20,000 split between both causes).

Screens aren’t evil, but as the cover illustrates so well, screens can keep us from seeing reality – from seeing God’s loving hand upholding creation, this world, and our lives. Here now is your opportunity to join with some family and friends and maybe your whole church community to put screens aside and see the rest of the world unfiltered. Check out page 19 for more details or click on the QR code above to sign up.

Since sports betting was legalized in 2021, it has taken Canada by storm. If you watch any hockey you’ve noticed a lot of betting ads, and they bring with them a growing temptation for Christians to make some money while enjoying their favurite teams. But as Jeff Dykstra explains, we have good reason to steer clear of sports gambling.

In this issue we also do a deep dive into the topic of environmental stewardship by sitting down with two Christian women who work for an environmental group in the middle of a logging community in northern BC.

If you are an adult who tends to skip over the Come & Explore kids’ section, we encourage you to give this one a read. It will be sure to make you smile.

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or click here to download the PDF (8 mb)

INDEX: Are you still able: A nation-wide challenge to experience life without screens / Creation stewards in a logging town / Who do you want to be? RP's 10-day screen-fast challenge / We took the no screens challenge... and now we're changing our habits / What can I do anyways? 35 screen-alternative ideas / Is TikTok the ultimate contraception? / How to stay sane in an overstimulated age / Defeated by distraction / How to use AI like a Christian boss / Who speeches were they? On AI, and others, writing for us / The Way / Who is Mark Carney? / What if we said what we mean? - the political party edition / Am I lazy or just relaxing? What does Proverbs say? / Get out of the game: Christians need to steer clear of sports gambling / Man up: ARPA leaderboards and the call to courageous action / Christians don't pray / Our forever home / Calvin as a comic / The best comics for kids / Fun is something you make: 11 times for family road trips / Come and Explore: Mr. Morose goes to the doctor / Rachel VanEgmond is exploring God's General Revelation / 642 Canadian babies were born alive and left to die / 90 pro-life MPs elected to parliament / Ontario shows why euthanasia "safeguards" can't work / RP's coming to a church near you



News

Canada’s population almost shrinking

The latest population estimation from Statistics Canada is revealing a startling change: Ontario, Quebec, and BC all saw population declines in the first quarter of 2025.

The country as a whole grew by only 20,107 people, which, as a percentage, amounted to a 0.0% increase, the second-slowest growth rate in Canada since records began in 1946. The record prior was the third quarter of 2020, when border restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic prevented immigration. The decrease has been attributed to announcements by the federal government in 2024 to decrease temporary and permanent immigration levels, with targets of 436,000 for this year, which is still well above the 250,000 level prior to the Liberal government taking office in 2015.

So, in the first quarter of 2025 we lost 17,410 people via emigration to other countries, and there was also a drop of 61,111 in non-permanent residents – people on temporary work or student visas, along with their families. The data also shows that there were 5,628 more deaths than births in the first quarter, largely due to Canada’s quickly declining fertility rate. That’s a collective loss of population of 84,140 people.

Then, going in the other direction, we had 104,256 people immigrate to Canada, for that small net increase of 20,107.

While it is a blessing that people from other countries are still willing and able to move to Canada, it is sobering to note that two-thirds of the world’s populations are now below replacement rate and the world’s population is projected to start declining later this century.

God’s first command to humanity was to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). Imagine what the world could look like in a few generations if Christians fulfilled this cultural mandate with enthusiasm while the rest of the world continued on its course.


Today's Devotional

July 5 - Fellowship in action

“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” - 1 John 2:6 

Scripture reading: 1 John 2:3-6; John 14:19-24

When the Bible speaks about knowledge, there is a difference between knowing something in theory and actually knowing something intimately.  The key difference between the two is that something known intimately will actually change the way a >

Today's Manna Podcast

Manna Podcast banner: Manna Daily Scripture Meditations and open Bible with jar logo

The Law of God

Serving #894 of Manna, prepared by B. Tiggelaar, is called "The Law of God" and is based on Matthew 5:17-26; 38-48.











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Indigenous peoples, News

Private property rights finally planned for Indigenous British Columbians

Few Canadians realize that the majority of Indigenous peoples in BC aren’t allowed to own land like everyone else can. They are shackled by the federal Indian Act, first passed in 1876, which forbids private property ownership for Indigenous people living on reserves. Instead on-reserve housing is provided, with the houses owned by the Crown and controlled by band councils. That may be changing in British Columbia. On April 2, the province introduced Bill 13 to specify that First Nations who are recognized by the federal government as Indian Act bands will finally have the legal ability to register and own land. This is a very different attempt at reconciliation than what the same government recently attempted with a plan to allow First Nations to co-manage all public lands in the province. If brought to fruition, such a change would effectively hand over veto power to First Nations for how most of the province is used. But Bill 13 is fundamentally different. In their press release, the government lauded how the proposed changes “reduce discriminatory and racist barriers.” They are right, though questions remain as to how it will apply to individual members of the many First Nations. It also remains a question how this legislation would align with the federal Indian Act. Private property rights for all people, regardless of race, is both biblical and an important ingredient for human flourishing. As ARPA Canada shared in one of its first policy reports, on the broader topic of aboriginal affairs, “property rights are essential for economic productivity and thereby have a direct impact on employment rates, which in turn impacts the living standards, housing conditions, health, and morale of an entire community.” God established private property as a right and codified it in the 8th Commandment “you shall not steal.” Owning land is an important step for creating employment and wealth, while instilling responsibility and stewardship. Given that reserves are owned by the government, there is little surprise that the housing conditions are often deplorable. For far too long, Canada’s federal and provincial governments have focused on handing out more money and more blame, rather than allowing Indigenous peoples the same opportunities and responsibilities as all other peoples....





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News

Saturday Selections – May 10, 2025

Gray Havens' Ghost of a King A lyric video seems a good idea for this, one of their harder-to-understand songs. A little mystery then, accompanied by a wonderfully haunting melody... Jamie Soles on the Genevan tunes " highlight the male voice. Men can lift their voices and sing these songs. They cannot do this with almost any modern music. Even the folks who have rediscovered the gospel of grace, and who make songs about it, sing in a feminine voice. I have sat and listened to whole services in Reformed Baptist circles, in Charismatic circles, in modern Mennonite circles, in Bible Church circles, where men were never allowed to lift their voice above a G. Women’s voices dominate. Not so with the Genevans...." Defending Jesus' divinity on the back of a napkin If you're talking to Jehovah's Witnesses, or any Arians, you can sketch this argument out on a napkin. A dyslexia-friendly Bible edition? I did not know such a thing existed – might this be just the version for you, or someone you know? Tolkien's "take that!" to Shakespeare Did you know Tolkien wasn't the biggest Shakespeare fan? As Harma-Mae Smit explains, a couple scenes in Lord of the Rings are Tolkien's go at one-upping what he thought was something lame from the Bard's Macbeth. Penguins are cool but not cold (9 minutes) Penguins survive in the coldest temperatures on earth. How do they do it? They are built for it, from the ground up, and then operate together with their God-given instincts! ...

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Documentary, Movie Reviews

March of the Penguins

Documentary 80 min / 2005 RATING: 7/10 Penguins are cute but tough as nails too, and March of the Penguins gives us the insider's look at both the grit and the comedy. These waddling, wacky creatures mate and reproduce in a clearing that, while miles and miles from most predators, is also miles and miles away from any source of food. So God has equipped the parents to be able to go for months without food as they wait for their egg to hatch. To give us the inside scoop the filmmakers spent a whole year in the harshest of environments, with temperatures as low as -60°C (-76°F), to bring us right into the penguin huddle. Cautions Somewhere in this film there is a line about "millions of years" but it seems almost beyond belief that a person could watch this film about the trials and triumphs of penguin life and not see it as a testament to the wonder of God's creative hand. More important for parents considering whether to watch this with the family, not all the penguins survive the journey, including a couple of instances where we see a dead chick. There's a scene where predator birds attack a group of chicks, eventually carrying off one. So I wouldn't recommend this for younger, more sensitive viewers. Conclusion While I loved this film, the pace was sometimes a slow waddle. My dad owned a DVD player that sped films up to 1.25 times while keeping the sound at its normal timbre – this would be a prime candidate for such a device, and if you stream it online, that's sometimes an option. That said, there is a reason it won an Oscar for best documentary. The filmmakers took us somewhere we've never before been, right into the middle of that penguin huddle. And that is a remarkable place to be! If you like March of the Penguins, there are a couple of other documentaries you may like too. Winged Migration tells the story of dozens of different bird species as they travel thousands of miles from North to South and back again. And if you found the ice and isolation of the Antarctic captivating you'll likely enjoy Imax: Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure. ...





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Book Reviews, Graphic novels

Kodi

by Jared Cullum 2020 / 176 pages Katya is spending the summer in a cottage in the woods of Alaska with her "Meema" (or grandmother). And while she'd be content to spend her time just reading comics, Meema sends her to town to go buy a Slurpee, and maybe find a new friend too. On the way home through the forest, Katya takes a tumble into a ravine. The fall knocks the wind out of her, but there's someone else there in the ravine with her who is in a bit more trouble – an enormous bear has been pinned down by a tree. Katya does what every sensible kid should do when confronted with an injured bear – she sings to it, then rushes off to an adult to get help bringing it home. Up to this point the book had been fairly "realistic" – I'm not talking the drawing style, which, while gorgeous is definitely still cartoony. What I'm referring to is that nature was nature, and civilization was civilization, and so when Katya met the bear, we weren't expecting it to talk. It was an animal, and this didn't seem the sort of book where the critters were going to be anthropomorphized. But, the author goes halfsies here, with the bear, named Kodi by Katya, not exactly a 100% realistic wild animal, and not exactly a person either. Kodi turns out to be kind of half person/half pet. When Katya and her Meema have to fly back to Seattle to care for a sick relative, they have to leave Kodi behind. But Kodi isn't having that. He stows away on a cruise ship, gets off in Seattle, and starts searching the city streets for his friend Katya. There he meets a sailor who is willing to help, leading, eventually, to a reunion and a very happy ending. Cautions The one caution here concerns the sailor who has just one leg. In a flashback we see how he lost his leg – his boat landed on it, crushing it. That struck me as a bit out of keeping with this otherwise pretty lightweight fare. But it isn't shown in any detail, so, not much of a concern at all. I was wondering where Katya's mom and dad were – mom is mentioned only briefly and dad never is – but we can presume they are back in Seattle. It's never explained. Conclusion This is a beautifully painted comic. While it's intended for maybe 12 and under, older readers could enjoy it just for the artwork. Overall, this is just a wonderfully sweet and gentle story, a throwback to a simpler sort of comic that has no weird agendas to push. Highly recommended!  ...