Last week I mentioned that I had discovered 9 Marks Ministries and that I was thrilled to find an organization that is dedicated to recovering many of the traditional marks of a Biblical church. While they mention that the nine marks they outline are not the only important marks of a healthy church, they do…
About a month ago I wrote about Cliched Christianity and spoke of the danger of allowing words to lose their meaning. Today I would like to explore one word that has become little more than cliché to many Christians. I have chosen to begin at the end, so to speak, with the word “amen.” I…
Today I will be writing about how redemption is applied to the lives of believers. An obvious prerequisite to this article would be one about how redemption was accomplished. I will not be writing about that at this time, so we will have to consider it sufficient to say that redemption was accomplished through the…
Much has been made in the past few years of mutual submission within marriage. Where traditionally women were encouraged to submit to their husbands, today we are told that the correct Biblical pattern is a mutual submission where the husband and wife submit equally to each other. This teaching seems to contradict the traditional Biblical…
Many months ago, inspired by discussion revolving around The Passion of the Christ, I wrote an article I entitled “Take This Cup Away From Me.” In recent days I have been continually struck by the greatness of Jesus’ sacrifice and my lack of understanding as to how great it really was. My thoughts turned to…
Last week I posted some new ideas on the passage in 1 Corinthians that seems to say it is better to stay single than to marry. If you missed the post, you can get all caught up here. One question that arose in subsequent discussion (some in the forums and some via email) concerned verses…
This week’s BlogSwap entry is provided by Joe Missionary and is on the subject of How To Pray For Missionaries. Take it away Joe… Brothers, pray for us (1 Thes 5:25). Before Jane and I left the States, we of course spoke before a lot of groups. A common question was, “How can we pray…
1 Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me:It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also…
Today I am going to carry on the discussion of baptism that I began yesterday. Or more correctly, I will begin it again. Yesterday I asked some questions that were of a rambling nature rather than being presented logically. Today I am going to try to bring a more systematic approach to the different views…
Over the past few days I have been doing some thinking about baptism. I come from a Reformed/Presbyterian background and spent the first 20-some years of my life in churches that practiced infant baptism (the Protestant flavor of it). Of course these churches also practice adult baptism when an unbaptized person becomes a believer. Several…
I am going to continue today with some thoughts from my Bible readings. This morning I read Revelation 6 (don’t even ask why yesterday was Corinthians but today was Revelation). In the previous chapter we read about a scroll sealed with seven seals that was in the right hand of God. A loud voice called…
Chris is a very dear friend of mine who does not always like to adhere to what I consider normal social conventions. I can’t say it is a bad thing that he does not constantly comply with what society says he is supposed to do and who he is supposed to be, but I must…
In this series of articles we are looking at what God’s Word says about community within the church. To facilitate this we have drawn out all of the verses in the New Testament that contain the words “one another” or “each other” and found that they point to four themes: unity, hospitality, devotion and edification.…
Several weeks ago we noticed an industrious pair of robins building a nest in a tree directly outside our bathroom window. Just about a foot below the window and perhaps 8 feet out from the house, in a little crook of a crabapple tree, they built a nest of grass, mud and bits of string.…
It seems that humans are comforted by familiarity and intimidated by the unknown. Perhaps this explains why clichés come into such common use. Or perhaps we are simply lazy and prefer to use a trite statement rather than create something original. The Christian life is filled with cliché. Christians are notorious for speaking “Christianese,” using…
God’s plan for the first relationship involved perfect unity. After awaking from sleep, Adam looked at Eve for the first time and uttered beautiful words that few men have since been able to match in beauty or simplicity, “This is now bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh;she shall be called ‘woman,’for she was…
I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hope of recovery. I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable. I am divided from mankind – a solitaire; one banished from human society…I have no soul to speak to or relieve me. We have all…
“I didn’t expect the truth about the Spanish Inquisition.” “NOBODY expects the truth about the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is dishonesty…dishonesty and revisionism…revisionism and dishonesty…. Our two weapons are dishonesty and revisionism…and your reckless apathy…. Our *three* weapons are dishonesty, revisionism, and your reckless apathy…and an almost fanatical devotion to deception…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst*…
Hang on to your hats, because I am about to spiritualize (and very possibly trivialize) one of the great laws of physics. Newton’s Third Law of Motion states, in its simplest form, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Take a look around and you will see this law in action…
Several years ago the “big thing” in the Christian world was the WWJD movement. If you were attending a church during that time (and even if you weren’t) you probably remember people wearing the little WWJD bracelets. There were also WWJD bibles, albums, videos, books and every other type of marketing material. Though associated with…