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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 to 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 11 - Fellowship in the truth (II)

“If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.” - 1 John 2:24 

Scripture reading: 1 John 2:24-27; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

As we were reminded of yesterday, fellowship with God outside of the truth that is Jesus Christ is impossible.  Thankfully, we have been given two wonderful aids to bring us to >

Today's Manna Podcast

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

Creation: In His Presence

Serving #900 of Manna, prepared by D. VandeBurgt, is called "Creation" (In His Presence) and is based on Genesis 1.















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Articles, Book Reviews, Popular but problematic

Keeper of the Lost Cities takes a turn

For most of its run, Keeper of the Lost Cities has been a lightweight but generally "safe" book series – there's no language, minimal violence, no sex (though quite a lot of flirting), and, up until the latest book, no agenda. But, on that last point, things changed with book 9.5, Unravelled. Author Shannon Messenger has decided that her readers need to know that homosexuality is "really cool." I've read about 9 of the, to this point, 11 Keeper of the Lost Cities (KOTLC) books, including this latest one, but have to admit to not being the biggest fan. I've been reading them because my girls were reading them. "Candy" books are one thing, "candy" series another I don't like KOTLC because I'm not wild about the premise: a lonely girl with no friends discovers she is super special. She's an elf, hidden in the human world because she's actually the most powerful, most important person (human or elf) in the world. She gets rescued by an astonishingly handsome guy, taken to a world of incredible wealth where she's famous, and three handsome guys are competing for her attention. That is not the best message for young girls, all of whom will go through teenage struggles with popularity and loneliness. This updated version of the "Prince Charming" message – that something or someone will arrive to put you on the pedestal you've always deserved to be on – is unhelpful. Still, silly isn't all that big a deal in small doses – some kinds of silly can be absolutely wonderful in measured doses – so my main problem with these books is just how many of them there are and how much time will be spent in this fantasy. They average over 700 pages each, with 11 books in the series so far. A silly picture book or a less-than-fantastic standalone novel is like eating some candy. Having a chocolate bar now and again is no biggie... but if your main meal for days and even weeks is just candy? That's something else. What we have here is more than 7,000 pages of silliness (so far), so that deserves some care and attention. To mitigate things, I made a deal with my girls to "supplement their diet." They had to read a book or two of my choosing – something that would be a bit meatier (though still enjoyable) – before they could move on to the next in the KOTLC series. Oh, and they had to give me a verbal book report for the latest KOTLC they'd just read. We all know how much kids love giving book reviews, but I wasn't trying to make this punitive. I'd been reading the books, too, and I wanted to see if they were astute enough to see through the silliness. Why'd I even let them read it? I'd have preferred they skip the series altogether, but I also wanted to teach them how to treat books appropriately. I didn't want to make too big of something that wasn't big. This series was candy, not poison. Subtle and delayed But then came book 9.5. KOTLC has a confusing system of numbering, with 9 "main" novels, and then an 8.5 and a 9.5 that offer new perspectives on the story that's already been told to this point. In 9.5 we get to see things from the perspective of a handsome rogue of an elf, Keefe, who is hiding in the human world, which is where he runs into homosexuality. It's only a few pages in another tome. On pages 137-141, a helpful jogger shares a trick he uses to stay mentally focused. And he also shares with Keefe that he has a "husband." Then, on pages 259-262, Keefe converses with a spunky waitress who makes mention of her "wife." Each time, it's just the one mention, and it might even slip past some readers unnoticed. But while Messenger seems to be trying to be subtle about it, she didn't want to be too subtle. So, on page 265, Keefe and his fellow elf Alvar talk about how humans have a variety of couples, including waitresses who have wives and men who have husbands. Alvar thinks, "It's really cool," and Keefe agrees, "it is." That's it. Just a half dozen pages. But in a kids' series. And we also don't know – and we have no reason to trust – where the author is going to take our kids in the series' last, yet to have been published, title. We live in a world in which increasing numbers of people "identify" with these sins, so parents shouldn't be surprised when gay and trans characters pop up in today's books. On my desktop, I have a booklet from Scholastic, purportedly the world's largest publisher of children's books for K-12, called Read with Pride. It featured a 100+ "LGBTQIA+" book list of titles they are promoting to schools, librarians, and teachers. They've been pushing this booklist since at least 2017, and I've noticed a real increase in LGBT content in anything published since 2020. It's like there is a box that needs to be checked. And everyone is checking it. So this agenda is everywhere. But it wasn't in KOTLC for the first ten books. This is another bait and switch like happened with the Wings of Fire series. The author pulled readers and parents in with an agenda-free opener, but once kids were hooked, Messenger could introduce her LGBT plug. If it'd started that way, conservative kids and parents would have steered clear, but with it happening so late in the series, even Christian kids will want to keep reading to find out how it all ends. Godless as a given? There's one more concern with Shannon Messenger's books, and with any secular series that'll have our kids living in it for days and weeks at a time. That'd include Harry Potter and The Mysterious Benedict Society's thousands of pages, and even something like the original 60+ title Hardy Boys series. R.C. Sproul once said of the public education system: “To teach children about life and the world in which they live without reference to God is to make a statement about God. It screams a statement. The message is either that there is no God or that God is irrelevant. Either way, the message is the same.” His point is every bit as true for stories. If all our kids are reading are secular books, a statement is being made. Whether they recognize it or not, they are being taught "either that there is no God or that God is irrelevant." While we don't know yet whether Messenger is going to finish her series by upping the LGBT content, or by backing off it, we do know already that she's spent 7,000+ pages teaching our kids that God isn't. So, what's a good supplement to all this candy? Some solid Christian fiction and biographies. This was published under the title "7,000 pages in, and now this? Another popular tween series, Keeper of the Lost Cities, takes a turn" in the May/June 2025 issue....