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Interview with an artist

Rachel VanEgmond is exploring God’s general revelation

Oil on gessoed panel, 20” x 24”
November 2024
Vivid radiance, impossible complexity, awesome love. Creation sings the praise of its Creator to all who witness it.

Artist Rachel VanEgmond attributes her love of nature to her childhood experience of growing up on a rural property near Grimsby, Ontario. Sharing time with loved ones in the great outdoors both nurtured her spiritual growth and cultivated artistic ideas. Raised in a Christian home and community, Rachel was the youngest of three siblings. She says her faith deepened when she started to “appreciate God’s love through Creation.”

Her younger self was a “crafty child,” so it was natural that in high school she was drawn toward art as her favorite subject. That passion led Rachel to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting at OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) University in Toronto, which she successfully completed this spring.

Rachel says of the experience at OCAD U:

“It was a blessing to be able to learn technical skills and also decide what content I want to make and what message is worth expressing.”

Oil on wood, 15” x 17” March 2025 When we take up the assurance in God that is vital for us, we are rewarded with peace and vibrance. Creation not only reveals God, but shines all the more brilliantly when we love Him.

Rachel’s thesis for her Bachelor’s explored God’s “General Revelation,” the Christian belief that God reveals Himself in the natural world (see Rom. 1:18-20, Ps. 19:1-4). What interests VanEgmond the most is, in her words, “How the indescribable intricacy of the natural world speaks to attentive and diligent love.” The result of her study is an impressive collection of paintings featuring the lush interior of Canadian forests.

Working on recycled wood with various types of paint, VanEgmond capably utilizes color and value and brushwork to illustrate light and depth and space. Viewing the series is like accompanying Rachel on one of her walks in the forest. As of writing this, the entire collection has almost sold out.

Even though her own schooling is behind her Rachel is planning to head back to the classroom again in the fall. This time she’ll be a high school teacher, at King's Christian Collegiate in Oakville, Ontario. Here Rachel hopes to share her enthusiasm for art with her students. “Teachers have such a massive impact on their students, and it is really exciting to be able to spark some passion for art.” Teaching will be a dream come true for Rachel, who has always been a keen art student herself and who “absolutely loves working with youth.”

In addition to teaching Rachel is looking forward to completing a few private commissions along with building her personal collection. Follow Rachel at Instagram.com to see more of her work.

Oil on wood, 7” x 17”
March 2025
A haven is always made for the children of the LORD, even in the heaviest thicket.



News

How far Christians can go to defend their property

Ontario premier Doug Ford recently remarked that “like down in the U.S., we should have the castle law” in response to a recent attempted theft of his car. He was also responding to the recent arrest of a someone for firing his gun in the air to scare off thieves.

A castle law allows people to use force – even deadly force – to defend their property. The concept originates with two enormously influential Englishmen from the 17th century. Jurist Sir Edward Coke stated that “a man’s house is his castle” (Institutes of the Laws of England). Political philosopher John Locke viewed property as an extension of the human person and thus also concluded that it is “lawful for a man to kill a thief, who has not in the least hurt him nor declared any design upon his life” (Two Treatises of Government).

But the Bible doesn’t go quite so far. Exodus 22:2-3 (NIV) says,

“if a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed.”

The logic of this command is fairly straightforward. In biblical times, there were no electric lights and even candles were few and far between. And so, if someone broke into your house in the middle of the night, it would be very difficult to identify the intruder, discern his intentions, and respond with appropriate force. Under these circumstances, if the homeowner happened to kill the intruder, he would not be guilty of murder.

But that did not hold true if the attempted robbery happened in broad daylight. Under these conditions, it would be easy to identify the robber, see what he is doing, and then respond appropriately. If the homeowner killed this thief in broad daylight, he would be guilty of murder.

Applying the principles of this passage today means that no Christian has the right to kill another person simply to defend his property by day. While he might be able to use lethal force at night, the modern conveniences of electricity mean that we have the ability to effectively make the night as bright as day within our homes. If you hear a noise in your living room in the middle of the night and you go downstairs, flick on the lights, and see a burglar there taking off with your stereo, you wouldn’t have the right to use deadly force.

And just to sum up, it is worth noting that Scripture (Romans 13:4) and our confessions (Belgic Confession 36) recognize that power over life and death – the sword in days of old and the gun in the modern day – to punish or prevent wrongdoing is given primarily to governments rather than private citizens. Just as we don’t want the government to overstep its authority, private citizens should be careful not to take the law into their own hands either.


Today's Devotional

June 21 - Jesus’ better way to God (I)

“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us (…) let us draw near!” - Hebrews 10:19-20,22a

Scripture reading: Hebrews 10:1-25

Every High Priest entering the Most Holy place would enter with the utmost caution. I am sure you remember what happened when Aaron’s sons were only on their >

Today's Manna Podcast

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

Everchanging shadows, unchanging Saviour: Ecclesiastes

Serving #880 of Manna, prepared by Ian Wildeboer, is called "Everchanging shadows, unchanging Saviour" (Ecclesiastes) and is based on Ecclesiastes 6.



















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Evangelism

It's necessary: use words!

I hadn’t expected to meet a witch on the bus, what with their alternative form of transportation. Yet there she was, not a wart to be seen, sitting across the aisle. She had started the ride buried in a book, but her head came up when my friend and I discussed a particular point of theology in a slightly louder than normal fashion. This friend was on his way to becoming a minister, and theological topics always had the effect of cranking up his volume. I suspected that this was a conscious decision, rather than just an outburst of enthusiasm, since he always talked about how Christians had to be more of a light to the world. And he was a light: a roaring, exploding bonfire of light that could not be ignored by anyone within earshot. Whether we were sitting in a steam room, or hanging out at a coffee house, or sitting on the bus, he provoked obviously unchristian people into talking with us. This time around it was the witch. A few minutes into the ride she interrupted us to ask us what religion we followed. My friend was happy to explain, and then asked her what church she went to. “Oh, I don’t go to a church,” she said, “I worship my personal goddess at home.” The way she explained it, witches (or Wiccans) sounded a lot like New Agers. They did try and cast the occasional spell, but only love spells, and the central tenet of their religion was a respect for all of nature. It was just mumbo jumbo, nothing shocking or new for us, until she started talking about her personal goddess. After listing all sorts of benefits that came from having a goddess on call, she admitted it was nothing but a fabrication. That admission left both me and my conversationally-endowed buddy at a loss for words; we just couldn’t understand how someone could knowingly choose a delusion over a real, caring, and powerful God. So we asked. They don't understand The question surprised her. “You guys have to understand,” she blurted, “You pray and that makes you feel better, right? So what’s the difference between what you do and what I do?” The basic fact she didn’t understand, the thing no one had told her before, was that we Christians serve the one real God. This woman had never heard that before. Her Wiccan experience with religion was an openly delusional one, so she, quite logically, assumed that all other religions were similarly based. I found her ignorance surprising, but since then I’ve found it isn’t unusual. In fact, I had a similar sort of encounter less than a month later. This time my friend and I were making our semi-regular pilgrimage to a display sponsored by our university’s pro-choice club. I always went to pick up as many free brochures as possible, which, once I was out of sight, I would gleefully destroy. It was a small thing – a very small thing – but I thought it was at least as good an approach as the one my friend tried time and time again. He always debated with the pro-choicers. But what was usually a waste of breath turned out a differently that day. After a heated five-minute exchange one of the young ladies at the table asked for clarification, “Do you mean you really, honestly think it’s a baby?” “Of course,” my friend replied, “Why else would we even care?” Well, that just didn’t fit with what she had been told, “I thought you religious types were just using this issue to try to control women.” Her friend nodded in agreement. They didn’t understand – they were utterly ignorant. Conclusion I’ve always wanted to believe that evangelism was as simple as living a good Christian life. I wanted to believe I didn’t actually have to talk about God as long as people could see His presence in my life. Actions are louder than words, right? The problem is, in this post-Christian age people don’t have the background – they don’t know the basics of Christianity – to understand our actions. A Christian who doesn’t work on Sunday is just a guy who gets the day off. No sex before marriage becomes the rational act of someone who’s scared of sexually transmitted diseases. Action against abortion is understood as a power grab against women, and even prayer can be explained away as nothing more than a type of meditation or some psychological self-talk exercise. Actions only speak louder than words when the reasons for the actions are understood. And the world doesn’t have a clue anymore. So, as John MacArthur once put it, we need to “Preach the Gospel and always use words.” The world doesn’t understand so we all have to start talking and explaining. If you already are, you may have to start talking a little louder. And if you’re uncomfortable with cranking up the volume maybe you can just hang out with a conversationally-endowed buddy who isn’t. A version of this article first appear in the January 1999 issue under the title "Dumb, but not deaf"...

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In a Nutshell

Tidbits – November 2024

Burke’s best Most have probably run across Edmund Burke’s most famous quote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Quite the punchy point, but like all wisdom, a man can sidestep it without too much effort: maybe good men need to get busy, but what can little ol’ me do? Well, Burke had a response to this sort of thinking too: “No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” My new favorite knock-knock joke Part 1 Knock, knock. Who's there? Cows. Cows who? No, no, cows don’t who, they mooooo! Part 2 Knock, knock. Who's there? Owls. Owls who? Indeed they do. Popsicle babysitting A few years back, this was quite a thing in some Canadian Reformed Churches – popsicle babysitting. The premise is that every church has a lot of mothers in need of babysitting, who are also willing to do some babysitting. So every mom who wants to sign up is given 30 popsicle sticks, with each stick worth an hour of babysitting for one child. If you want another mother to babysit your four children for two hours, you’ll have to “pay” her eight sticks. That mom would then have 38 sticks to “spend” and you would be down to 22. If you quickly become low on sticks that means that you had better start babysitting someone else’s kids to build up your stick reserve. All babysitting requests and offers are handled via group emails. As one of the organizing mothers put it, “This gives you the option to have a ‘guilt-free’ sitter” because they don’t cost you a cent. So you can go out and have a good, inexpensive date night, or bible study, or doctor’s appointment, or whatever! I don't know if this is still a thing, but if not, maybe it should be again. 10 truths from a man with one eye Vivek Ramaswamy is a part of Donald Trump’s incoming government, earning his spot there with his uncommon amount of common sense, and his impressive ability to articulate it. As an observant Hindu who rejects Jesus as Savior, he is, however, blind to what matters most. Still, a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind is going to be able to see far better than most, even if his sight is still impaired. In a discussion with Tucker Carlson he shared that he holds to 10 truths, and he was able to articulate all 10 off the tip of his tongue: • God is real • There are 2 genders • Fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity • Reverse racism is racism • An open border is not a border • Parents determine the education of their children • The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind • Capitalism lifts us up from poverty • There are three branches of government in the United States, not four • And the US Constitution is the strongest and greatest guarantor of freedom in human history God has given us His Word to allow us to see even more clearly, and He charges us in 1 Peter 3:15 to always be ready with an answer for the hope that is in us. So, if we were asked to articulate our own lists of truths, would we be ready? And what would our one, two, or ten truths be? Truth vs. tolerance “If anybody comes along espousing some message and asking for tolerance, you can be sure it’s error because error demands tolerance, whereas truth demands scrutiny.” – John MacArthur Ventilation by Jay Adams Not too long ago there was a psychological theory called “ventilation.” I’m not sure whether or not it has died out everywhere yet. But theory or no theory, it’s still seems to be a popular idea – If you’ve got something churning inside, you’d better get it out, for your own good. “What’s wrong with that?” Well, several things. I think I’ll just mention two. First, the self-centeredness of it is apparent. Who cares what happens to the other guy when I take out my ire on him—I’m the one who counts! “Well, I can see that. What’s the second thing?” Let me read you what God says about the issue in Proverbs 29:11: “A stubborn fool fully ventilates his anger, but the wise, holding it back, quiets it.” “Wow! Didn’t know God had spoken about the matter!” Quite explicitly. Who wants to make a fool of himself? And it doesn’t hurt you to “hold it back” as the Freudians thought, either. In fact the more you work yourself up into a lather that finally spills out, the worse things get – not the better. Not only for you – but for everyone around you. And first thing you know, you have to go around seeking forgiveness. To vent your anger is foolish in every way you can imagine. For sure, ventilation isn’t an option for the believer. Something to think about, eh? “Yea!” SOURCE: Reprinted with permission from Jay Adams’ June 1, 2009 entry at www.nouthetic.org/blog. High view of sex It’s an irony that chastity is portrayed in today’s popular fiction and film as being a matter of prudishness, as if only those who hate sex would fail to indulge in it whenever and with whomever. It is not the chaste, but their opposite – the promiscuous – that can best be likened to sex-hating prudes. The prude and the promiscuous both share a low view of sex: the prude thinking it something so unattractive as to be done without, the promiscuous thinking it so ordinary as to be done with everyone and anyone. The chaste, however, think sex is special. So special in fact, that we need to protect it, treating it as we would gold. We reserve it as a special gift as to be shared only with our intimate other, and even then, only after promises have been made, and two lives have been bound together. We don’t hate sex; we treasure it, protect it and love it! A one-question test on the 5th Commandment “Do you honor your mother and father? I’ll ask you one question to see if you do… Is your room clean? What does it mean to honor them? To obey them, right?” – Earl Taylor Jr., an American Civics teacher, to a class of students who all seemed to think they honored their parents, but most failed this one-question test. Post-secondary miseducation isn’t new When I hear from nieces and nephews about the woke nonsense being pitched to them in university today, I can offer a strange bit of encouragement: at least it’s nothing new. Two decades back, it wasn’t transgenderism, but another ideology that was not to be questioned. At least one of your profs was going to make you ingest Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary, which had a generation worried about the planet’s certain, and imminent demise! It didn’t matter if you were taking English, Engineering, Medicine or Physical Education, you were going to see it! Three decades ago, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. had this harsh evaluation, which seems every bit as topical today: “In college one is exposed to a vast amount of information that is quite untrue, and it is most unjust that one should have to demonstrate one’s mastery of untruths to graduate – one has to go even further to graduate with honors.” And William F. Buckley Jr. articulated his own indictment of post-secondary education more than seventy years ago: “I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University. Not, heaven knows, because I hold lightly the brainpower or knowledge or generosity or even the affability of the Harvard faculty: but because I greatly fear intellectual arrogance, and that is a distinguishing characteristic of the university which refuses to accept any common premise. In the deliberations of two thousand citizens of Boston I think one would discern a respect for the laws of God and for the wisdom of our ancestors which does not characterize the thought of Harvard professors – who, to the extent that they believe in God at all, tend to believe He made some terrible mistakes which they would undertake to rectify; and, when they are paying homage to the wisdom of our ancestors, tend to do so with a kind of condescension toward those whose accomplishments we long since surpassed." Spurgeon on the need for earnest preaching “It is an ill case when the preacher: Leaves his hearers perplex'd – Twixt the two to determine: ‘Watch and pray,' says the text, ‘Go to sleep,’ says the sermon.” “You may depend upon it that you may make men understand the truth if you really want to do so; but if you are not in earnest, it is not likely that they will be. If a man were to knock on my door in the middle of the night, and when I put my head out of the window to see what was the matter, he should say, in a very quiet, unconcerned way, ‘There is a fire at the back part of your house,’ I should have very little thought of any fire, and should feel inclined to empty a jug of water over him.” SOURCES: C.H. Spurgeon’s Lectures to my Students and The Soul Winner Lyric o’ the month Addison Road’s What do I know of Holy? I made You promises a thousand times I tried to hear from Heaven But I talked the whole time I think I made You too small I never feared You at all, No If You touched my face would I know You? Looked into my eyes could I behold You? I guess I thought that I had figured You out I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about How You were mighty to save Those were only empty words on a page Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees What do I know of You Who spoke me into motion? Where have I even stood But the shore along Your ocean? Are You fire? Are You fury? Are You sacred? Are You beautiful? What do I know? What do I know of Holy? What do I know of Holy? What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame? And a God who gave life "its" name? What do I know of Holy? Of the One who the angels praise? All creation knows Your name On earth and heaven above What do I know of this love? ...