The session of First Presbyterian Church of Fort Collins – the second largest congregation in the Plains and Peaks Presbytery behind First Presbyterian Church of Boulder – withdrew its request for dismissal on Jan. 13, ending a 13-month journey that started out as a means of discerning where God might be leading them.   Six... Continue Reading

The meaning of weekend has changed since Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defined it as “often a time during which business is suspended and most shops are closed,” and since the Puritans adopted blue laws to prohibit commercial activity on Sundays.   Sabbath observance is eroding. In general, our culture does not support the biblical view... Continue Reading

Let’s call a spade a spade: sarcasm often gives us license to be lightheartedly hateful. Only I can look inside my heart and determine when I’m honoring God with my sense of humor and when I’m grieving his name. When my sarcasm condemns, judges, shames, or isolates God’s image-bearers, I sin against God’s cherished craftsmanship.... Continue Reading

It’s knowing who Christ was, what He did on the cross, and what He still does for us to this day that strengthens the believer for every task. For Peale’s salesmen, and Edwards, these kinds of biblical verses seemed to be more like a mantra, a self-assuring, almost self-hypnotizing sense that a higher power was... Continue Reading

All too often, rather than turning to God for grace to respond to the wrong with wisdom and forgiveness, we choose to indulge bitterness. We keep thinking about that wrong. We play it like a video in our mind over and over. We stab ourselves with the sharp memory of the incident, feeling the pain... Continue Reading

With the new law, Arkansas has the toughest abortion restrictions in the nation. The bill, which maintains exceptions for rape, incest, to save the mother’s life, or for severe birth defects, is set to become law 90 days after the legislature adjourns—at the end of March or early April.   If an unborn baby’s heart... Continue Reading

Longview City Attorney James McNamara said the U.S. Supreme Court law has made it clear that invocations can be given at city council meetings. “The more unclear answer is whether the prayer can invoke the name of Jesus Christ,” he said Monday, adding that different courts have reached different conclusions on the matter.   Ministers... Continue Reading

People will insist that they believe that Adam and Eve were real historical people, that they were the first human beings, created in the image of God. It sounds orthodox on the surface. But we need to dig deeper: what do you mean by human being? Was Adam ever a baby nestled at his mother’s... Continue Reading

Put bluntly, our worldview is shaped by what we allow to enter our minds. Given the massive psychological and physiological effects of pornography on male users, we should hardly be surprised that exposure to porn is so closely associated with the development of a generally permissive sexual morality and, specifically, with increased support for same-sex... Continue Reading

There’s no doubt that where we’ve been has an effect on who we are. Sanctified common sense tells us not to ignore the past. But the post hoc fallacy warns us against giving too much power to the past. According to the Scriptures, the most important stuff in life flows inexorably from the human heart,... Continue Reading