We looked last week at legalism and freedom, and this week I want to give three days — with three points each day — of the way Paul’s letter to the Galatians shows how to live our way out of legalism’s clutches and embrace a life of liberation. These are strategies for warding off the false charge that we are not accepted by God. First, we need to focus on what Christ has done for us and not what our... Read more

The Christian Tradition and a Social Theory of Contract “Freedom to contract” is one of the pillars of libertarian economic theory (the other being “protection of private property rights”).  The principle of freedom to contract suggests that government should avoid regulating private transactions because the individual parties to contractual agreements are in the best position to judge the value of their bargain and possess the moral freedom to make their own bargains.   Many conservative Christians take an essentially libertarian... Read more

Brad Wright is an excellent sociologist and has a fantastic book coming out from Bethany that will squash some widely-reported and repeated myths about Christians. Here is his study results of the official census data on male church attendance. There are some good charts on the next page. I’m grateful to Brad for this information. Brad Wright 3/3/10 Question: Are There Fewer Male Evangelicals? Short answer: No The data come from the General Social Survey which has been collected every... Read more

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

Corbett, Steve and Brian Fikkert. When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves . Chicago: Moody, 2009. Steve Corbett is the community development specialist for the Chalmers Center for Economic Development, and an assistant professor in the department of economics and community development at Covenant College. Brian Fikkert is an associate professor of economics at Covenant College, and the founder and executive director of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College. Matt Edwards, our... Read more

Kris and I will be in Florida this next week on Spring Break, visiting with Lukas and Annika and Aksel. But today we are in Orlando speaking at Synergy’s event. I will be talking about how Paul saw himself in “motherly” terms. My brother-in-law, Pete Norman, was one awesome coach and is already in the Hall of Fame. Catalyst West … Dan has a good announcement. Here are the lab speakers … yes, I’m one of them. Post of the... Read more

At the end of month most of us take a good look at our checkbook or our bank accounts to see if we made it. Most of us, when we want something to eat, go to the refrigerator or the pantry and grab something. When we want something special, we go to a favorite restaurant. It takes less than 40 dollars to lift a poor orphaned child in Swaziland from poverty and starvation, among other things, into a life of... Read more

In our first two posts, we looked at legalism. Today I want to sketch what “Freedom” means for Paul, and then next week I want to sketch some simple procedures we can use to liberate ourselves from legalism. Freedom is an Act of God to set us free from sin, from the condemnation of sin, from the system of evil and injustice, and from the clutches of Satan. Freedom, though, is also positive: it is an Act of God to... Read more