Here are nine verses that have a different meaning and purpose than you may have thought... Read more
Here are nine verses that have a different meaning and purpose than you may have thought... Read more
"We are all God’s children"Although God has created everyone, not everyone is actually in a relationship with Him. Only those He has called to repentance of sin, to put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and therefore have the Holy Spirit living within them are able to consider Him as their Father: “But you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' Read more
Do you find yourself on Netflix scrolling through recommended lists, simultaneously overwhelmed by the endless selection and unable to pull the trigger on a film that would be worth your two hours? Read more
We have to stop thinking of denominations as a mode to cause division within the church. As the old saying goes, “unity does not equal uniformity.”We have to start thinking of them in terms of the freedom we have to keep the convictions we have while sharing unity in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Read more
The New Testament provides us with guidelines on how God sets up His holy church. Many will argue that things such as family integration of worship are not commanded in scripture, and thus not an important issue. I would argue that this could not be farther from the truth. When we look at models of the family, community, church, and government in the Bible, there is an immense amount of insight we can take away. Read more
Nevertheless, I am baffled by the number of people I know who cannot stand for a movie to have anything but a happy ending. Maybe it's a symptom of being part of the privileged West, not believing or wanting to believe that life is tragic. Maybe it truly is, as I've been told, that people have enough sadness in real life; they need their entertainment to give them a respite from the sadness. Regardless, it seems happy endings do better than sad endings at the box office. Read more
Sadly, people today are content to stay within the limits of their own small worlds. They do not have "eyes that see" anything except what is within the boundaries of their personal tunnel vision. Since compassion needs observant attention towards others, it is out of reach to those who are self-absorbed. The result is, compassion toward others isn't being extended. Read more
How should Christians respond to scientific discoveries that seem to contradict the bible? Yesterday a news story was released about a mass grave of human relatives found in South Africa. Scientists are saying this is a brand new species of human that we have never seen before. The new species could date back 2.8 million years. Read more
Prior to being married, I was a bumbling idiot (edit: I'm still an idiot i just don't bumble quite as much as I use to) who didn't know up from down. I thought BLTs were healthy and "chest of drawers" was pronounced "chester-drawer". Let's just say I've learned a lot since I got married in 2009, and, not just about sandwiches and bedroom furniture. I've learned that love is a conscious choice we make, not just a feeling. I've learned that pain is how you grow and most importantly that true love is sacrificial. Read more
The prime example in my mind comes in the form of a 1988 hit by Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians called “What I Am”. In the opening verse of the song, we find these lyrics: “Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box. Religion IS A SMILE ON A DOG” (EMPHASIS mine). The way I read that is to consider a dog’s default resting face, a smile that it has, regardless of what is happening around it, good or bad. As far as the dog’s face is concerned, that smile is a blissful and contented ignorance of anything that is actually going on. Religion, to Brickell, is the same thing… a contented diversion that distracts us from ever facing the cold reality of a godless world… and that’s all that it is. We don’t need to go all the way back to 1988 to see this comparison, though. Take, for example, the very recently popular song “Take Me To Church” by Hozier. Get a look at how THIS song starts out: Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In