Early Training in God’s Word
A review of Starr Meade's Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds: a family devotional based on the Heidelberg Catechism.
I’ll just go ahead and sound like the bad Christian here. I often cringe at the thought of family devotions. It’s the combination of talking the kids into it, disciplining their behavior during (which majorly involves the skill to stay on topic), and the cheese-factor of many of the devotions we have tried. Doing family... Continue Reading
Superman Isn’t Jesus, He’s Your Dad
Superman doesn't remind of Jesus; he reminds us of our dad.
My own dad was a superman before I had ever heard of Superman. He was faster than The Flash (no matter how far my head start, he could always beat me in a foot race), stronger than Thor (he could open the lid of any pickle jar with ease), and more powerful than the Incredible... Continue Reading
UK Girl Guides abandon God, pledge to themselves
Instead of orienting around God, the girls now promise to “be true to myself and develop my beliefs.”
“By omitting any explicit mention of God or religion the Guide Association has grasped the opportunity to make itself truly inclusive and relevant to the reality of 21st century Britain,” Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society told the BBC. The organization deemed pledging to serve the queen still relevant, apparently, though girls... Continue Reading
The Bridge of Persuasion
The only way that we can move toward Christ is if he calls us out of the tomb, and by that call gives us new life.
If we are meant to “connect” the truth of God’s Word with the truth that God is always revealing to all men, then we dare not present the resurrection of Christ, or the existence of God, or any other truth of Scripture as if it were a “maybe.” Any “maybe” has underneath it a standard... Continue Reading
The Reformed Doctrine of Special Revelation
What It Is and What It Isn’t
On any number of disputed issues, Christians will often frame the debate in a way that indicates either an inability or an unwillingness to acknowledge the difference between the Word of God and their own interpretations of that Word. “We believe the Bible and you do not” is the implicit (and sometimes explicit) affirmation. Those... Continue Reading
Geneva College wins temporary shelter from contraceptive mandate
Judge: the federal government “failed to build sufficient lead time” for schools like Geneva to make plans for the mandate.
Federal judges have dismissed lawsuits from other schools like Wheaton College on the grounds they aren’t experiencing immediate harm from the mandate. Judges will likely decide on the merits of the ongoing lawsuits like Geneva’s after the Department of Health and Human Services issues a finalized contraceptive mandate in August. A federal judge granted... Continue Reading
Does College Cause Young Adults to Lose Their Faith?
The university is not the faith-shredder we imagine it to be
More broadly, adolescents today are generally quite conventional, and specifically so with regard to religion – less rebellious, for instance than they were during the baby boom generation – and so are generally content to continue in the faith traditions in which they were raised, however much that faith may or may not mean to... Continue Reading
You Are NOT Who You Think You Are
One of Satan’s greatest lies is that you will always be trapped by your sin.
It’s time to stop letting yourself be defined by labels. Those labels belong to your old self, and that old self is long gone, buried with Christ. You may struggle with anorexia, but that sin will not rule you because Christ rules you. You may battle with lust but that sin will not define you... Continue Reading
Talk English, not pulpit!
In a week where rumours abound that the price of high-end male grooming products, skinny jeans and heavy rimmed glasses has gone through the roof in Greenville, SC, of all places, it is good to hear from Mississippi Frank who hopes to escape from the clutches of the incorrigibly cool in the near future. He... Continue Reading
Singing Together in Corporate Worship
We become like what we worship, and how we worship.
Not everyone are singers, but all can sing, and part of the beauty of congregational singing is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We rely upon each other to sing together—utilizing various abilities such that the bass needs the melody and the strong reader needs the warm tones of his... Continue Reading