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Magazine, Past Issue

May/June 2025 issue

WHAT'S INSIDE: If businesses tithed / Pierre Poilievre: sometimes access comes with too high a cost / Being thrifty and finding hope / A principled (and practical) guide to tithing / 5 things I'd like my kids to learn about money / God love a cheerful giver: 6 ways to restore the joy of giving / How to lock your phone from pornography... 101  / A Church response is needed to stop the porn crisis / RP's 10-day screen-fast challenge / Signing on the dotted line? A creative approach to boundaries in dating / Becoming Chinada? - a look at our country, from the eyes of a recently arrived Chinese family / Books: education littles will love (including "5 on our feathered friends") / 7,000 pages in, and now this? Another popular series, Keepers of the Lost Cities, takes a turn... in book 11 / Write down your story: sharing your history is sharing His history / What kind of Prime Minister could he still be? 5 things you might not have known about Pierre Poilievre / Upheld: a widow's story of love, grief & the constancy of God / Morning and Evening: a teen offers up a different sort of book review for Spurgeon's classic devotional / 3 on comforting suffering Christians / Stockholm Syndrome Christianity / Get to know John Calvin / Christian films for families / Come and Explore: Bald Eagle / Don't follow your heart / A word for a new mother... as given at her first baby shower / Our family's trip to the Ark / Ruth de Vos is quilting kids and creation / Wise and Innocent / Coming soon: RP's merch store! / and more!

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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!


Today's Devotional

May 10 - Not by chance

“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” - Proverbs 16:33 

Scripture reading: 2 Chronicles 18:28-34

Not only do we see that the Lord has created a wonderful world, which even under the curse of sin cannot hide His glory, but His Word also includes God’s testimony concerning Providence, that is, how He governs the world and >

Today's Manna Podcast

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

The Incomparable God

Serving #838 of Manna, prepared by Greg Bylsma, is called "The Incomparable God".











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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, and 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 Kendrick 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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News

Canada’s conspiracy-proof elections

Controversy over Scheer's leadership win highlights just how blessed we are to have our unimpeachable federal electoral system Days after Andrew Scheer won a close, final-ballot victory for the leadership of Canada’s Conservatives, questions were raised about the vote total. The Conservative Party reported that 141,362 ballots were counted, but in a list sent out to the different leadership candidates’ campaigns, it showed only 133,896 votes. Some from second-place finisher Maxime Bernier’s camp wanted to know, why the big difference? They were troubled because the two vote totals differed by 7,466, which was greater than the 7,049 votes that separated Scheer from Bernier. Then came news that party director Dustin van Vugt has ordered, right after the votes were tallied, that all ballots be destroyed. It was becoming the stuff of conspiracy theories. Fortunately, the answers that were demanded came quickly. Yes, the ballots had been destroyed, but a snapshot of each one still existed. The lower total on the list sent out to the campaigns was due, in part, to a block of about 3,000 votes from polls around Toronto not being entered into the Party database. The remaining difference, of about 4,000, was attributed to human error, as volunteers had to process 140,000 ballots in a very short time. While these answers satisfied most, the Party’s reliance on an electronic record – retaining only a digital snapshot of each ballot instead of keeping the paper ballot itself – was a problem to some. As iPolitics columnist Michael Harris noted, “Have you ever photo-shopped a snapshot? Let’s just say digital images aren’t necessarily the last word in reality.” Harris doesn't seem to like the Conservative Party, so he may be looking for ways to cast doubt on the results. But it's important to note, it’s the Conservative’s reliance on electronic records that allowed Harris to stir up doubt. The need for accountability On June 6 Maxime Bernier tweeted his “unconditional” support for “our new leader Andrew Scheer,” which seems to have quieted the questions. But this controversy highlights how important it is for voters to be able to trust the reported results. An electoral system needs to be as transparent and accountable as possible. Why? Because, everyone, even unbelievers, know that Man is fallen, prone not only to sin, but also to make mistakes. Therefore, how very dangerous it would be to leave the vote counting up to a select unaccountable few. To protect from fraud, and from mistakes, there needs to be accountability. Now, one reason questions about the Conservative leadership election came up is because the party used a complicated means of running the election – their ballot included 14 names. With that complexity came more opportunities for human error. The use of voting machines to count the ballots also raises questions as to transparency – how do we know the machines were working right? One reason some of the questions were quickly answered was because the Conservatives tried to make their system accountable. They involved scrutineers – representatives from all of the campaigns – to monitor the ballot count. While there were some questions from the Bernier camp, other losing candidates were quick to say they had no such doubts. Electronic voting requires us to trust blindly This incident also highlights the strength of Canada’s federal electoral system. Some want to change it, and move to online voting, or electronic voting machines, because these methods are supposed to be easier and faster. But these counting computers also come with a complete lack of transparency. Did the computer count your ballot the right way? Or might there have been some sort of bug or error? How can anyone know? While we can’t be certain as to how many errors occur, we do know they happen. In the US, where these machines are put to regular use it’s easy to find stories of voters who cast a ballot for one candidate but saw it being recorded for the other. There's also the famous example of a precinct in the 2000 election that gave Al Gore a negative 16,022 vote total. This was caught, quickly, but what of the errors that aren’t so obvious? A vote total is only as accurate as the counter, but these electronic counting machines are not open to scrutiny – their computer code is a proprietary secret. So when we make use of them we have to accept, on the basis of trust, that the programmers are both honest and completely error-free. Canada's system doesn't require trust Contrast that with our federal, incredibly simple, entirely transparent, system. No need for trust because everyone is held accountable. You arrive at the poll, you mark your ballot in secret, cast it in front of two witnesses, and then know that it will be counted in front of scrutineers from the competing parties. With that simplicity comes the confidence that your ballot, as it was cast, has been counted. Our system allows us to do what few other countries can: we can verify the official government vote count independently. Because each ballot is counted by hand, in front of scrutineers from the Conservatives, Liberals, and often times the NDP too, that leaves us with as many as four different counts for each riding: the official one, and one from each party. And should there be any notable discrepancy between a party's total and the government total, we can be sure they will let us know! Around the world elections are plagued with accusations of ballot tampering and other shenanigans. Before the latest US presidential election Donald Trump was complaining that the system was rigged. The Democratic Party was accused of rigging their presidential nomination in favor of Hillary Clinton (and against second place finisher Bernie Sanders). It doesn't matter if accusations are justified or completely unfounded – voters' trust will be undermined if there is no way of proving the results reliable. We can see that in the Conservative leadership campaign too; despite all their efforts at transparency, they still had questions raised about the totals. What a blessing it is, then, for Canada to have a federal electoral system that it is so simple, transparent, and accountable, that such accusations are simply unthinkable....

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Politics

Electoral Reform: paper and pen beat bits and bytes

As we progress ever farther into the digital age there is going to be an increased push to have voting go from paper to digital, with voting done on, and tabulated by, computers. Part of this push comes from those who just think it a natural progression. After all, isn't everything going digital? Others think it will increase voter turnout, especially if we open things up by allowing voting over the Internet (then you could vote from your own home). But another reason for this push to digital comes from the complicated ways that other countries do elections. In Australia's 2016 federal election, because of their ranked ballot, it took more than a week for the country to find out who had won. If voting had been done electronically this could have been resolved almost right after voting concluded. But there is a problem with electronic voting that makes Canada's present paper and pen voting method vastly superior. If we want people to be involved and invested in the democratic process, then the one thing we need them to know is that the results reported at the end are, without a shadow of a doubt, legitimate. That’s true of the Canada’s present federal system…and in a way that should be the envy of every other country. Our paper ballots leave a paper trail that can be checked and double check and triple checked too. In fact, in most ridings there are people with at least 3 different perspectives counting each vote: the (hopefully neutral) Elections Canada staff a Liberal Party scrutineer a Conservative Party scrutineer In addition there are often scrutineers from the smaller parties like the New Democrats and the Greens (though they don’t have the manpower to scrutinize at every poll). This independent triple check keeps the system entirely transparent – if Elections Canada, the Liberals, and the Conservatives can all agree on the vote total (and they do 99% of the time) then we know that the result are trustworthy. Compare that to United States, where electronic voting tabulates the vast majority of votes and there is no paper trail. Every election there are reports of computer errors – someone voting Republican and their vote being given to the Democrat candidate, and vice versa. Some of these errant votes are caught – one famous example occurred when, in a precinct where just 412 people voted, presidential candidate Al Gore received a negative vote count of minus 16,022 votes. Someone, it seems, had hacked the machine. Errant totals like this are easy to spot, but if a machine can be hacked once, why should we trust all the others? And how many of the other vote totals might be the result of simple computer error? American voters can only wonder how many less obvious errors may have escaped notice. Long ago Joseph Stalin said something to the effect of: "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." Americans’ dependency on electronic voting machines means their system is based on trust – trust that the machines our counting properly, and trust that the people making and programming these counting machines are competent and honest, and trust that their security is flawless. Meanwhile in Canada our hand counting approach recognizes that it is foolish to trust overmuch, that we are fallen and depraved creatures. Of course election officials have never stated it in such explicitly biblical terms, but that is the difference nonetheless. Instead of trust, we have verification, with two, three and even more vote totals from the different parties available to check against the official results. From a Reformed perspective then, the Canadian hand count is vastly superior to the American voting machine count. On the federal level Canada currently has the most trustworthy, and therefore best, vote-counting system in the world. We need to let our friends and neighbors know that when it comes to voting and verification, bits and bytes don't beat pen and paper....