Signs & Wonders Blog

Last Wednesday, I received an email via Messenger from a young man currently living in the city where I was born. I hadn't met this man before and initially wondered why he contacted me. A glance at his Facebook page revealed he is a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. His profile photo shows him wearing an elder badge. I figured he wanted to have a conversation in an attempt to convert me to his religion. At first, I didn’t respond to his greeting of “How’s a going.” Then last night while organizing computer files, I came across a video produced ten years ago in response to the “I’m a Mormon” campaign happening then. So I sent the YouTube link to this man. Here’s the transcript of the video… I was born in Fargo, North Dakota where my parents took my sister and me to a traditional Lutheran church. There I attended Sunday school and went through confirmation but didn’t like it very much. Deep down in my heart I wanted to believe in God but he wasn’t re...

One of my first videos posted on YouTube was “A Taste of the Toronto Blessing.” It received many hits as well as emails questioning or criticizing manifestations at the church formally known as Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. In one email, someone noticed me quoting Matthew 7:20, “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” He asked, “What is fruit?”  That question can be answered by reading Galatians 5:22-23… “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” A true Christian should have those characteristics. For that to happen, one must abide in Jesus as He talked about in John 15… 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothi...

One song often heard during the holiday season is “What Child Is This?” A question many people need to answer for themselves is “Who’s Child Am I?”   Sometimes while evangelizing, sinners tell me they are going to heaven because they claim to be a child of God. My hometown newspaper recently published a letter applauding Sen. John McCain’s declaration (regarding the Syrian refugee situation), “All of us are God’s children.” That inspired me to write a response pointing out this is not an accurate statement. It’s true that all men “have been made in the similitude of God.” (James 3:9)   But not every person on this earth is technically a child of God. A man or woman who doesn’t become born again has Satan as their spiritual father even if they don’t believe he exists. Look at this conversation Jesus had with the Pharisees in John 8… 39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”  Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you w...

This year a few big-budget motion pictures with Biblical themes have been released such as “Son of God”, “Noah”, “ Exodus: Gods and Kings” , and the remake of “Left Behind.” Except for “Son of God”, I haven’t seen any of these movies. One reason is many Hollywood productions take creative liberties to where they misrepresent Scriptural truths. Then there’s a film coming out on Christmas Day about a committed Christian but omits the gospel message. “Unbroken” is a biopic about Louis Zamperini, an Olympic track star turned World War II hero who survived a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean, spent 47 days drifting on a raft, and then was imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese for over two years. Eventually Zamperini returned to Japan to extend forgiveness to his former captors. I’m already familiar with Zamperini’s life. When I worked at Billy Graham’s World Wide Pictures, one film we distributed was “ Zamperini: Still Carrying the Torch .” This 37-minute documentary highlights...