Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen. BCP Read more

Kris and I enjoy the NCAA tourney every year even if the scandals this year have kicked us in the shins. Seeing teams like Loyola and Marshall win make the tournament so much more enjoyable. And how about UMBC beating trouncing UVa?! Buy “Local” but is it local? This makes me want to ask, Is anyone honest these days? As local-food sales grow into a $20 billion industry, a USA TODAY Network investigation found that state-branding programs designed to inform consumers and support... Read more

Uncle Mike’s Never Fail Bible Reading Plan, by Mike Glenn For over eleven years, I was the teaching pastor of Kairos, a Tuesday night worship service for young adults at Brentwood Baptist Church. A lot of the young adults who came to Kairos were coming to their first experience of church and worship. Some of my favorite stories of my ministry come from these Tuesday nights. And some of those stories include helping these young adults get over their fear... Read more

https://soundcloud.com/user-212639123/zealots-then-and-now-kr-85   Read more

Source: A California teacher who also serves as a reserve police officer accidentally fired a pistol inside his classroom while teaching about gun safety and injured three students, according to reports. Dennis Alexander was teaching public safety awareness in his administration of justice class at Seaside High School when he fired a semi-automatic handgun and hit the ceiling, KSBW reported. Teachers are not permitted to possess firearms in California schools. The errant bullet ricocheted off the ceiling, sending out fragments that... Read more

Here’s what it means. Read more

Is the universe fine-tuned, designed as it were, for our existence? One of the key doctrines of the Christian faith is also the opening line of the Apostles Creed. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” Or the Nicene Creed: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.”  God is the creator of everything that exists. Even time – defined by the material... Read more

I came of age as a professor at the threshold of Ronald Reagan when so many American evangelicals climbed aboard the GOP and conservative politics (of a sort) and were against abortion (and voted accordingly for Republicans) and thought America was going to pot and, by golly, they wanted to make a contribution so they went Republican. Some full bore. Not all were Republicans but the majority was. Clearly. So much so that the word “evangelical” for many means “Republican.”... Read more

What happened to the value of wisdom as we age? Brendan O’Neill: Everyone, understandably, is focusing on the white ‘nostalgia’ bit of Vince Cable’s speech to the Lib Dem conference. His slur against older Brexit voters, whom he thinks voted against the EU because they want to go back to a world where ‘passports were blue, faces were white and the map was coloured imperial pink’, has caused a stink, and rightly so. But there was something else in the... Read more

In her newest collection of lectures, What Are We Doing Here?, Marilynne Robinson takes on the issue of the humanities. Do we need them? Why do we need them? The problem is the collapse of so much of higher education under the weight of economics combined with big business and little more than professional or job preparation. Is college/university about getting ready to get a job or is it about preparing a human to be more fully human? Robinson: Our great... Read more