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Magazine, Past Issue

Mar/April 2025 issue

WHAT'S INSIDE: Christians don't retire / Free video series to protect families from porn / Tariffs are terrible economics: why Canada shouldn't hit back / Aged saints can tell you what your peers don't know or won't say / Planning for retirement / More time to pray: Martin & Christina Veenstra on retirement in your nineties / Necessary Endings: finding the courage to let go in business, church, and family / "Can You Build it?" contest winners / Life in bloom: the gift of flowers / A century of cinema for your family: 20+ films to take you and your kids through the 100 years of feature films / Euthanasia changed the abortion battle / Why write? / How to write... for Reformed Perspective / Fiction for tween and teen boys / Chang Shen: grace to persevere / Are there little green men? / Come + Explore God's majestic microverse / and more!

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News

Saturday Selections – Mar. 29, 2025

Propaganda techniques (10 minutes)

This 1948 or 1949 movie highlights seven different propaganda techniques, and to be forewarned about them is to be forearmed. This could be great for a high school English class. Click the title above for the full 10-minute color presentation, or watch a 7-minute B&W abridgment below.

News or narrative – when the truth-tellers can't be trusted

What with images and video that can be faked so quickly and so skillfully, the biggest problem with our news consumption might be the speed at which we imbibe. When we just hit headlines, or read whoever the algorithm puts in front of us, we can't know if they are trustworthy – we can't know that this is true. So... slow down.

The slippery slope of theistic Darwinism

Howard Van Till was a physics professor at Calvin College who used to be "the pre-eminent example of an evangelical Christian scientist in the 1990s who defended Darwinian evolution."

Until he stopped being Christian.

Or even a theist.

Doctor Google, influencer moms, and the local Church

"I recently saw some Christian influencers offer a course on marriage, though they had been married for less than two years. They had paltry experience and undoubtedly little wisdom, but they did have a big platform. And many were eager to learn from them. God has carefully constructed his church so that, as much as we may benefit from those who are far off, we are likely to find the greatest and most credible help nearby. Your church has many seasoned saints who have spent their whole lives following the Lord and whose godliness is on display each and every time the church gathers."
- Tim Challies

A mid-life assessment

A pastor's wife discovers with age comes new:

"...temptations to impatience, ungraciousness, pride. This had surprised me then, but I now see this is true not just in ministry. I used to imagine I’d have to fight the same besetting sins my whole life, and while some old struggles still remain, I’ve found I need to also be vigilant for new ones."

Rend Collective: Build Your Kingdom Here

A song and a prayer.


Today's Devotional

April 2 - The psalm of the cross

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” - Psalm 22:1a

Scripture reading: Psalm 22:1-8

These are words we all know. And we especially know them because they became the words our Lord and Saviour cried out when he hung upon the cursed cross as the ultimate sacrifice for all of our sins.

We may well wonder how David’s experience >

Today's Manna Podcast

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

Psalm 1 Two ways to live: Meditations from the Psalms

Serving #800 of Manna, prepared by Rev. Cody Swaving, is called "Psalm 1 Two ways to live" (Meditations from the Psalms) and is based on John 10:10; Psalm 1.











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Book Reviews, Children’s fiction

Hostage Lands

by Douglas Bond 2006 / 235 pages “When am I ever going to use this?” It’s a question that comes up frequently in classrooms around the world. And it’s a question Neil Perkins, a British lad, is asking about his Latin class. But while some students have to wait years to put the lessons they learn to practical use, Neil only has to wait until later that same day. On his way home from school Neil takes a nasty spill off of his ATV, creating a small crater where the machine lands. In this crater he discovers tablets covered in Latin. So Neil, with the help of his previously underappreciated Latin teacher, starts translating them. He finds out they comprise a story told by a Roman centurion who lived two thousand years ago! This is really two stories in one, the first a short one about a boy named Neil who doesn’t like his Latin class and doesn’t talk much with his dad. This accounts for 6 of the book’s 37 chapters, serving mostly as an introduction and conclusion to the larger story about Roman Centurion Marcus Aurelius Rusticus. The Centurion’s story starts with his account of what he suspects will be a suicide mission into the lands north of Hadrian’s Wall, the territory of the savage Celts. Rusticus only manages to escape death with the help of a friendly Celt, Calum, who he soon discovers is a very different sort of man, for Calum is a Christian. Bond’s book is a great read, and also has a strong message, contrasting Christianity with worldviews that elevate power, the State, and honor as supreme. This is a boy’s book, for the ten to early teens range, but adults could enjoy it too, especially reading it aloud to their kids....

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Animated, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

Free film: The John Newton Story

Animated / Drama 2021 / 30 minutes Rating: 7/10 We know John Newton (1725-1807) as the former slave ship captain who repented and then wrote the amazing hymn Amazing Grace. In this Torchlighters episode, we get to hear the rest of his life story from the man himself. When an anti-slavery bill is brought to the British Parliament, one of the members goes to Newton to ask him to speak out on the issue. In response, an old Newton starts to share his dark history. It is a story of constant rebellion – this was a sailor so salty that the other sailors complained about the filth coming from Newton's mouth. It is also a story of a transformation wrought over many years: when Newton first became a Christian he stayed in the slave trade, going on to captain two slave ships for three voyages, transporting thousands of slaves in shameful conditions. This, it turns out, is why the Member of Parliament (MP) has come to Newton: since Newton captained slave ships as a Christian, the MP thinks he can convince Newton to speak out in favor of slavery. The MP has another reason to think Newton might help his cause: after attending the church that the older Newton now served as a pastor, the MP had never heard Newton preach against slavery. Newton realizes that not only can he never speak for slavery, he must now, finally, begin to speak against it... no matter what it might cost him and his church. His congregation was made up of many who had ties to the slave industry. Cautions While the brightly-colored animation style might have parents thinking this is all-ages viewing, the topic matter means it is not so. The toughest scene is right at the start, where we're shown a happy African village, and then the slavers come to kill and steal. It's brief, lasting only a couple of minutes, serving as the visual background to a parliamentary speech given by Christian politician William Wilberforce on the evils of slavery. Man-stealing – a crime God punishes with death (Ex. 21:16) – is so brutal there's no way to entirely mute the wickedness of it, so parents will need to watch the first few minutes to best judge whether their children will be able to handle it. I wouldn't show this to my under tens. There is one picture of Jesus briefly shown, in a book the Member of Parliament is reading. I'll also note the video leaves viewers with the impression that a young Wilberforce and the older Newton both saw the end of slavery in Britain. They did, together, help end British involvement in the slave trade – that happened in 1807 – but it wasn't until 1833, many years after Newton's death, that the slaves in Britain were finally freed. Conclusion My favorite part was the William Wilberforce speech, which bookends the presentation, beginning and ending it. Would that we could one day hear a Christian politician give such an impassioned speech in Parliament in defense of the unborn! This is one to watch with the family, or with a class, and discuss how we can and must rise to the defense of the unborn, never being afraid to raise their plight in the public square. You can watch The John Newton Story for free at RedeemTV.com though you will have to sign up for an account. It has also been made available for free on YouTube, so you can watch it below. ...

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Drama, Movie Reviews

Freedom

Drama 2014 / 94 minutes Rating: 7/10 Like many a film "inspired by true events," this isn't good history but it is pretty decent cinema. Freedom is really two stories in one, the first loosely based on the life of John Newton. He's the author of the hymn "Amazing Grace" and while the film gets the broad details of his life right – he was the captain of a slave trade ship, he did have an encounter with God on his ship, and he did turn his back on the slave trade – the timeline of those events has been greatly compacted. In real life, his rejection of the slave trade was a gradual shift over years and even decades, while in the film it seems more a matter of weeks. The second story takes place 100 years later, and is a fictional account of a family of slaves fleeing Virginia via the Underground Railroad. Cuba Gooding Jr. stars as the father, Samuel. He has his wife, son, and mother with him, and while his mother trusts in God's faithfulness for everything, Samuel has no interest in God. How, he asks, can any slave think God cares about them? It's unusual for a Christian film to ask difficult questions. While Samuel does come to God before film's end, both he, and we, are left with the realization that God might not give us all the answers we are after, or at least not on this side of Heaven. What connects these two stories is a Bible that John Newton is supposed to have given Samuel's great-grandfather when he was just a boy years ago. Samuel's mother still has it, and we take the leap back in time when she tells the story of how Newton came to give a Bible to a slave. Newton's "Amazing Grace" is the musical centerpiece to the story, but there are lots of other songs too. It isn't a musical, though – in musicals people just randomly start to sing instead of talk. Here most of the songs have a natural fit: characters sing because they are comforting someone, or as part of a performance, or they sing to pass the time. But whatever the reason they are singing, the music is very good! Cautions Freedom received an R rating for the violence that's done to the slaves. While many of the blows happen just offscreen, communicated more by sound than by visuals, it can be brutal. That makes this best suited for older teens and parents. While God's name is used throughout the film it is used appropriately, to either talk about Him, or to Him. There is one use of "damn." Conclusion One secular critic called this "an overly sentimental cinematic history lesson best suited for church and school groups" and while he meant it as a criticism, I'd just say he's nailed the target audience. The slave trade was brutal, and while this is too, it is only so in parts because the filmmakers didn't want to present an unvarnished look – they weren't trying to make a Schindler's List that'd leave everyone mute and depressed afterward. By presenting only some of the horror, they allow families to view and discuss it together with their older teens. Freedom could serve as an instructive introduction to this chapter of history... at least for teens and adults. ...





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Drama, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

Hidden Blessings

Drama / Christian 2024 / 107 min Rating: 8/10 Gregory Davidson is kind of like Willy Wonka of chocolate factory fame. Both men are creative artists, with Davidson being the painter behind the series of "Hidden Blessings" canvases that were so popular not so long ago. Like Willy Wonka, he stepped away from the public eye entirely, even as everyone was dying to get a glimpse in to his "factory" to see how the product is made. Now, for the very first time Davidson has invited a documentarian into his house, a young filmmaker, Lydia Drake, who contacted Davidson about a painting gifted to her in her mom's will. The canvas had Davidson's signature, so, she was initially only hoping to find out if the painting was genuine. But then the two started texting back and forth and, eventually, Davidson put out the invite to do a documentary on his work. Like Wonka, Davidson is a quirky, frantic, oddball, bouncing across the room, breaking into song, doing impressions. He is quite the character, and you'll want to get to know him. And like Wonka, he's entirely fictitious. That is not clear at the start – this is a drama convincingly presented as a documentary. To the film's credit, it was about 50 minutes in before my girls started suspecting this might be fiction rather than fact. Only when the storyline started aligning with some key points from the Prodigal Son parable were their suspicions raised, so it was impressive and entertaining how the film pulls off this genre subterfuge for so long. While there are a few different mysteries that documentarian Lydia Drake is trying to solve, the biggest relates to the "Hidden Blessing" series of paintings that brought Davidson to public attention. Each one involves a "painting of a painting" but with the interior painting always somehow obscured – a married couple stands in front contemplating, a couple of passersby just happen to be in the way, a repairman is replacing the bulb just above it, or maybe a whole crowd has gathered to see what we can never quite glimpse. It's a gimmick Davidson plays out innumerable ways, and while the public loved the series it left them with questions. What was the painting in the painting? Was it the same one in each instance? Might it be a picture of his wife? What was the "hidden blessing"? It's a lot of fun to see this mystery played out, and you're going to love the final reveal! Cautions Part of this story addresses the problem of pain: why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? That's such a tough question there is probably no entirely satisfactory answer – when you are suffering, you might know intellectually that God is going to turn this to your good, as we are promised in Romans 8:28, but it is hard to emotionally grasp it to the same degree. That promise is a big part of the answer on offer here, with Davidson's sister pointing to God's faithfulness and trustworthiness to make that transformation. But the film also offers an Arminian take, trying to divorce God from responsibility for our pain by blaming free will instead. Not to give too much away, but when one of Davidson's sons takes a Prodigal turn, we can see how his choices – his "free will" – leads directly to the pain he experiences. His injuries are self-inflicted. However, the most painful cut of all for the Davidsons – still impacting them two decades later – is the death of Gregory's wife. Her death was not the consequence of choices she made so "free will" doesn't suffice as an answer. A part of the answer to pain is that, as RC Sproul might note, there are actually no good people since if it was up to us we would all be rebels against our Creator. Thus any pain we experience is merely what we deserve, and any goodness, undeserved. But that's too edgy and too Calvinist an answer for most evangelicals to consider. One other warning would be for younger audiences – one character dies. While it happens offscreen, it is unexpected, and therefore might be quite jarring to the under ten set. Conclusion This is an incredibly creative film, and the credit there is due to the star, James Arnold Taylor, a long-time Hollywood voice actor, who does the heavy lifting, offering up a memorable performance. And while he's onscreen 90% of the time, that isn't the limit of his involvement. He was also the writer, producer, co-director, and he even created many of the dozens of paintings we see throughout – those are his works. Hidden Blessings will be too preachy for some. These kinds of sermons-wrapped-in-cinema stories always have their contrived moments. But if you can appreciate a Kendricks brothers' Facing the Giants or Courageous then that a little subtlety is sacrificed for the sake of the sermon won't put you off. I waffled between giving this a 7 or 8, because as much as I enjoyed it, it would have been better about 15 minutes shorter, and those cuts could have also helped it make its point more subtly. But I settled on 8 because it is just so creative. This is James Arnold Taylor showing us all his gifts... and they are a multitude. Seeing him offer up his best to the glory of his God is such a delight to experience. Check out the trailer below, and watch it for free at RedeemTV.com. ...

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Drama, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

Sue Thomas F.B.Eye

Drama / TV series 41 minutes / 2002 Rating: 8/10 Twenty years back when it first hit the airwaves, this sure was a crowd-pleaser in Christian households. Based on the real life of deaf F.B.I. agent Sue Thomas, it combined the intrigue of police investigations with the unique comic pairing of the courageous but somewhat naive Sue and her lovable but not-always-so-well-behaving hearing dog Levi. The shows were generally tame, but not lame; a Christian series where the acting might not have been Oscar-worthy, but was never cringe-worthy either. In the pilot episode Sue starts her new job in the FBI and concludes that she was just a diversity hire, and isn't happy about it. But her lip-reading abilities soon catch the attention of agent Jack Hudson who realizes that Sue has just the skill-set their surveillance team needs. Cautions When Jack Hudson first learns Sue can read lips, he challenges her to tell him what one of his colleagues 50-feet away is saying. It turns out he is making weekend plans with the woman he is sitting with. But, as Jack shares with Sue, that woman is not his girlfriend. This two-timing is a minor plot element, but makes what might otherwise be an all-ages show something better suited to older teens and adults. Conclusion I've only rewatched the first episode to this point, it was as charming as I remembered, and I look forward to watching the other 56 episodes. Canadians and Americans will be able to watch the pilot episode below (unfortunately, the video won't work outside of North America) and find more on Encourage TV on YouTube here (you'll have to use their search function to find the others). You can also watch it for free on RedeemTV here, though you'll need to sign up for a free account. The advantage to doing so is that it is much easier to sort through the episodes there. ...

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Animated, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

Torchlighters: the Martin Luther Story

Animated / Family 2016 / 34 minutes Rating: 7/10 The strength of this film is its short length. At just 34 minutes, it can be shown in the space of a single school period. For the pre-teens this is intended for, that might be just the right length, with the quick pace, and colorful animation sure to grab most students’ attention. But the biggest weakness of this short film is….its length. It is far too short to tell this story with the gravitas it needs – Luther’s spiritual wrestling is dealt with in just 7 minutes! It also ends abruptly, with Luther busy translating the Bible into German in Wartburg Castle. The narrator then spends just a single minute summing up the whole of the second half of Luther's life. And then the credits role. I should note a couple of inclusions that might have been better left out. Luther is told that the very night he nailed up his 95 Theses, his long-time protector, Duke Frederick, had a dream about a monk writing on a church door with a quill that was so long it extended all the way to Rome "where it toppled the crown off of a lion." This is presented as the reason Frederick was willing to defend his rebellious trouble-making monk: God had told him ahead of time that his monk was going to topple the pope. But while the movie portrays this as fact, there is reason to think this might just be a popular myth. Also, at the film's conclusion, there is a passing, two or three second shot of a title page illustration from one of Luther's books depicting Christ on the cross, with Luther and John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony kneeling below. I make mention of it, for any who consider this a violation of the Second Commandment. That said, this is a great film for children who don't yet have the attention span for a longer Luther film – it will certainly keep most children engaged, and does give a good overview. You can watch it for free at RedeemTV.com (you do need to give your email to watch free) and down below. ...