Skip To Content
Locations
  • HWY 33 (RUTLAND)
    Address

    439 Hwy 33
    Kelowna, BC, V1X1Y2

    Our in-person church services happen on Sundays at 10:30 am and 5 pm (Pursuit). We also meet at Church Online on Sundays at 10:30 am.

    Service Times

    Sunday 10:30am
    Sunday 5:00pm

  • DOWNTOWN (previously SOUTH)
    Address

    1305 Gordon Dr, Kelowna, BC V1Y 3E7

    Our in-person church services happen on Sundays at 10am.

    Service Times

    Sunday 10 am
    Online 11 am

  • CREEKSIDE (LAKE COUNTRY)
    Address

    11370 Bottom Wood Lake Rd
    Lake Country, BC, V4V1V4

    Our Creekside community meets on Sundays at 10 am. We share space with the Winfield SDA Church in Lake Country.

    Service Time

    Sunday 10:00am

  • Online Church
    CHURCH ONLINE
    Live every Sunday from our

    Hwy 33 & Downtown locations

    On-demand on YouTube for our

    Creekside, Hwy 33 & Downtown locations

    Live Service Times

    10:30am (Hwy 33)
    11:00am (Downtown)

  • Pursuit
    Address

    439 Hwy 33
    Kelowna, BC, V1X1Y2

    Pursuit is our evening service that is known to be a more intimate gathering, spending prolonged times in worship and the Lord’s presence. While we see all ages calling Pursuit their home, many young  adults gather to worship together here.

    Service Time

    Sunday 5:00pm

Poison

January 30, 2023

It was a strange moment when a smart and smooth-looking businessman stared at me and confessed that he did not like me when he first met me. In fact, from the first time he heard me speak, he instantly disliked me and responded negatively each time he saw me. Seemed a little harsh, it’s not like I’m carrying a pitchfork and have two horns poking out of my head. 

Following his confession, I naturally asked, ‘why are you telling me this?’ It seemed like it lacked common courtesy. As I remind my children, inside voice, please, you really should not speak what is tumbling around in your head. Just because you think it does not mean you have to say it, you have control over your cocktail party of thoughts. 

The businessman explained that many years ago, he worked for an English man, a terrible manager. It was an appalling experience, and from that point on, he had lumped us English all together as jerks, fools, or numbskulls. 

Thankfully, it didn’t end there. He went on to say that he forgave his old boss, and he enjoys my speaking and likes me now. Reassuring me that not all English are the same. I was relieved as I do not think the English have cornered the market on bad managers. This story reminds me of Jesus’s words about calling no man a fool because words can murder, and Jesus links it with the exact duplicate of the sixth commandment, ‘thou shalt not murder, but I say when you are angry call no one Raca or a fool.’ (Exodus 20:13) To call someone the Aramaic word “Raca” is literally to call him “empty-headed.” Commentators suggest a few more contemporary substitutes like a numbskull, nitwit, blockhead, bonehead, jerk, or a brainless idiot. I have been called most of them, sometimes even affectionately! Raca, used in a deadly, earnest way, demotes another person to the level of nothing. This is one of the points Jesus is making in Matthews 5:21-26, don’t write people off, don’t place people into a filing cabinet of the mind where we think of them as nothing. Where we somehow gaze down from our superior position. Jesus is saying that contemptuous anger will get us into spiritual trouble and affect our relationship with God. Jesus condemns angry contempt and all its cousins — animosity, malice, hostility, malevolence, wrath. Even when people insult us and fail us, think of Christ’s response on the cross as they hurled insults. 

‘Father, forgive them.’ 

Forgive and move on, anger will always poison our lives – and don’t write people off, even the English.