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This course is intended to give you an opportunity to learn, to help you stay fresh in your faith, and to provide tools to energize your church.

Wednesdays 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

LEARNING FOR LIFE COURSE

This course is intended to give you an opportunity to learn, to help you stay fresh in your faith, and to provide tools to energize your church. Wednesdays 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

This course is intended to give you an opportunity to learn, to help you stay fresh in your faith, and to provide tools to energize your church.

LEARNING FOR LIFE COURSE

This course is intended to give you an opportunity to learn, to help you stay fresh in your faith, and to provide tools to energize your church.

Wednesdays 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Take a guided journey through Paul’s most inﬂuential letter. Using ten key stops along the road, we’ll trace the entire map of Romans — from the announcement of the Gospel to the renewal it produces. You’ll see how the big ideas connect, why they still matter, and how to explain them with conﬁdence. For adult learners who want depth that’s practical, this course will help you live out the “obedience of faith” in your own life and share it with others. Register now at www.prbi.edu/LFL.

September 16 -

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You’ll see how the big ideas connect, why they still matter, and how to explain them with conﬁdence. For adult learners who want depth that’s practical, this course will help you live out the “obedience of faith” in your own life and share it with others. Register now at www.prbi.edu/LFL.

September 16 - October 28

Wednesdays 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

The

One Thing: Following Christ in a World of

There is a classic object lesson about a jar, some rocks, gravel, sand, and water. A time management expert fills a jar with fist-sized rocks and asks if it is full. It looks full until he adds gravel, then sand, then water. The point is not that you can always squeeze more into a busy life. The point is this: if you do not put the big rocks in first, you will never get them in at all.

The question that follows is worth considering. What are the big rocks in your relationship with Christ?

A Tale of Two Sisters

Jesus answered that question during an ordinary dinner at the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha, in the village of Bethany (Lk 10:38-42). The

story is brief, almost casual, and yet it cuts to the heart of what it means to follow Jesus.

Martha opened her home to Jesus and His disciples, a generous and demanding act of hospitality. The preparations were significant. But at some point, Mary quietly slipped away from the kitchen and sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him teach. Martha, still working, noticed. Her frustration boiled over, and she went straight to Jesus with a complaint: “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

Jesus responded with gentleness and a correction: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has

Distractions

chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

What Overwhelms Us Shapes Us

Notice what had happened to Martha. She began with noble intentions, to serve Jesus, but her preparations slowly consumed her attention, then her peace, and finally her perspective. She became anxious and troubled. Her distraction was not just stealing her time; it was shaping who she was becoming.

Mary, by contrast, was being shaped by something else entirely: by the person of Christ, His words and His presence.

This is the subtle power of distraction. The things that overwhelm us ultimately form us. It does not

Kim Cairns President

matter whether those distractions are trivial or genuinely worthwhile. Even service can overshadow the devotion that makes it meaningful. Jesus did not criticize Martha’s work. He rebuked her worry and distraction. Devotion, He made clear, must come before service. It is the bigger rock.

Learning Mary’s Secret

What made Mary choose as she did?

I believe she understood that Christ’s desire for us always precedes our desire for Him.

A difficult truth for Christians to grasp is God’s intense longing for us and His steadfast love, as confirmed, for instance, in Romans 8:39. We do not sit at Jesus’ feet to earn His attention. We sit there because

we already have it. As that truth becomes a reality, devotion shifts from being an obligation to a desire.

The Battle Our Students Face

Our students have a longing to follow Jesus. In our experience, desire is rarely the problem. The problem is the persistent pressure of a season of life that is full to the brim before it even begins. Assignments, relationships, extracurricular activities, social media, and the constant noise of campus life fill the jar quickly. None of these things are necessarily bad, but together they crowd out the one thing that matters most. The big rock of devotion gets left on the table because everything else went in first.

What makes this season uniquely challenging is that many of the distractions are good things, even worthy things. Like Martha, students can find themselves pouring their

energy into serving, achieving, and engaging, while the quiet, deliberate practice of sitting at Jesus’ feet slips away from the day.

Our Commitment

We are resolute in helping students put the big rocks in first. In all of our chapel meetings, we set aside times for prayer and quiet reflection on Scripture. We guide students in making their relationship with Christ central to their lives, not just a leftover activity.

If we are honest, none of us are far from Martha’s example, but Mary’s choice is still available to everyone of us in every season, no matter how full the jar already looks. We are deeply committed to helping students discover that for themselves. And we extend the same invitation to everyone reading these words.

College News

Over the past year, we have continued to see God faithfully at work through the ministry of PRBI. As an institution, we remain deeply encouraged by the many ways students are being prepared to serve Christ in their churches, communities, and around the world.

This spring, we celebrated another meaningful graduation season as students completed degree, diploma, and certificate programs designed to help prepare them for lives of ministry and Christian service.

We are also thankful for strong admissions momentum heading into the fall. Interest in PRBI continues to grow, and we are encouraged by the number of students preparing to join us this coming year. This growth reflects not only effective recruitment efforts, but also the ongoing desire among young people to be equipped for lives of faithful Christian service.

Missions and ministry opportunities continue to be a significant part of student life. This year, students served internationally in Spain and Romania. Events such as Impact Week have also helped cultivate greater awareness of God’s work

Jeremy Johnston Vice President

around the world and encouraged students to consider how they may participate in global missions in the future. Looking ahead, additional international ministry opportunities are already being planned for next year in Germany and Thailand.

Our Learning for Life course this fall takes a guided journey through the book of Romans. Using ten key stops along the road, we’ll trace the entire map of Romans from the announcement of the Gospel to the renewal it produces. You’ll see how the big ideas connect, why they still matter, and how to explain them with confidence. For adult learners who want depth that’s practical, this course will help you live out the “obedience of faith” in your own life and share it with others (starts September 16). Visit our website www.prbi.edu/lfl to register.

Also, make sure to save these dates: Alumni Choir (beginning September 9), Missions Evening with Joshua Bautista, Executive Director of Operation Mobilization Canada (October 7), and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever production (November 20 & 22).

Thank you for your prayers and partnership.

The God of Revelation

When I was a kid, my pastor did a whole series on the book of Revelation. There were charts and long explanations of the terrible surprises the end of the world held. I always thought of it as a very complex puzzle – figuring out which metaphor spoke of which country to come and how those countries would either conquer or be conquered. I said to myself that ‘It’s all going to work out in the end’ and forgot about it. Since the book was so laced with complex allusions and seemed to require a mastery of a diverse number of texts from other books, it seemed best left to the experts.

However, it turns out that the point of the book of Revelation is not to

give us a roadmap to future events. It certainly does speak of the future, but primarily it tells us about the mind of God. Chapters 4, 5, and 7 place us in God’s presence, where we see Him seated on a throne. Again and again, the book of Revelation comes back to this place – a room or site where at the centre this throne of God sits. He is surrounded by powerful angels and magnificent creatures. From there He conducts the symphony of Revelation. The purpose of the book is to show us that ultimately God is in control of the world and He will bring a victory over the pain and evil powers by changing Earth literally into heaven.

From this room we learn about God – not so much do we learn many

complex theological concepts, but we get to sit in the room with John, and if we quiet ourselves, we can feel what he felt and experience some part of God. To understand the throne room is to understand something about God.

The first thing that strikes you about the throne room is that it is marked by power. In Revelation 4:5, John says he hears thunder and sees lightning. Anyone who has lived in the country knows that feeling of awe one gets from a thunderstorm. There is the ‘boom’ that comes from the skies and rolls out through the miles, making you glad you are not right under it. Something in that speaks of the greatness of the Creator. Here, John notes the thunder was

not above the room but actually proceeded from the throne. That one detail alone would have made the apostle terrified to approach the seat of this Being.

The second thing that strikes you about the throne room is that it is marked by victory. Anyone who has suffered through an injustice can tell you that life on Earth is not fair and they hope there is some kind of reckoning. They might be powerless to right the wrong done them but hope that God is not. As we read through Revelation, we come to its famous judgements made by the Lord against the world. They are not reckless or arbitrary acts, but the measured judgements of an objective God. These are followed

Jason Gayoway Faculty

by the Great Day of Judgement at the end of the book.

No doubt these events are terrible and vast, yet they assure us that God is not casually indifferent to the acts of violence and various evils people commit or suffer from. The throne room is the place where justice is dealt out against these wrongs and those who suffer are remembered. When someone wrongs me, I am tempted to hit back even harder, but God is the perfect judge.

Finally, the throne room is characterized by worship. God is not the only inhabitant of the room. In fact, it is filled with a myriad of angels, stately humans called ‘elders,’ and four mysterious creatures. Possibly spurred on by these sights of glory and power, the inhabitants call out continuous praises to God. Even though I have read the book many times, the worship of these creatures never fails to move me. They are so stark and beautiful. I will include one here as a closing to this article. May we come to the point where we can accept the awesome sights of this book and sing with them.

Perhaps that is why the book of Revelation continues to speak so powerfully to Christians in every age. The world often appears chaotic to us. Nations rise and fall, violence fills the news, and many people quietly wonder whether evil is

gaining ground. Even in our personal lives, we can feel overwhelmed by illness, disappointment, conflict, or uncertainty about the future. Revelation ultimately calls us not merely to speculate about the future, but to worship the God who holds it.

Revelation 5:11-14

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” 13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” 14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Yet Revelation repeatedly pulls John, and us, back to the throne room of God. The message is not that Christians will understand every detail of the future perfectly. Rather, the message is that above the noise and confusion of the earth sits a God who has not lost control. History is not wandering aimlessly. God sees. God remembers. God judges rightly. And ultimately God wins.

Friday, April 9 at 7 pm Sunday, April 11 at 2 pm

Financial Update

Peace River Bible Institute is recognized as a degree-granting Bible College by the Province of Alberta. Building on Christ as our foundation, PRBI values Biblical Training, Authentic Relationships, Kingdom Service, and Strategic Partnerships. Our vision is that every student encounters Christ in ways that transform their life, energize their church, and impact their world. We are a Bible

For more information on our Mission, Vision, and Values, go to www.prbi.edu.