In the 11th century, a wise Christian by the name of Anselm wrote a small book called Cur Deus Homo, Why God Became Man, and in it he offered a straightforward interpretation of salvation. Anselm said that only man should solve the problem of sin—but only God could. Who ought to suffer the consequences for […]
The Most Important Thing We Cannot Do For Ourselves Read More »
Jiang Yuchun was a boy the first time he attended a Christian gathering in a home in Anhui Province, China. He and his father walked fifteen miles under cover of darkness because any kind of Christian gathering during the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976 was an act of subversion according to government policy.
That Subversive Book Read More »
If you are looking for a set of values that will give dignity to your life, that will connect you with the life of God, and that will work at a practical level, you need not look any further than these: reverence and respect. Reverence is what is supposed to happen in our hearts when
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I just received this email from friends about a bombing of a church in Jos, Nigeria just this morning. Nigeria remains a hot spot of religious conflict today. CNN is reporting multiple casualties in the suicide bombing. Here is the email: Once again, today’s was a Sunday blast, this time at a church compound where
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I have always had mixed feelings about believers in the U.S. who complain constantly about the persecution they experience for their faith. That is because there is a history of persecution of Christians with real blood on the ground. Actual blood. Torture. Corpses. And this is the reality today. I know people who have been
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He shouldn’t have gone out in the ice storm on that cold day in 1841 even for his own inauguration as President of the United States, and certainly not without hat or coat. And he shouldn’t have given a ponderous 8,495-word inaugural address that took almost two hours to deliver. But sixty-eight-year-old Henry Harrison did,
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The action film Inception uses a science fiction idea to tell the story of an amazing heist. A corporate spy and thief has developed a unique capability to enter the subconscious of victims while they are in a chemically induced deep dream state, then insert characters and situations into the dream, leading ultimately to uncovering
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After Blaise Pascal, the famous French mathematician and philosopher, died in 1662, they found a piece of paper in the lining of his coat. So important were these words to him (which he had written eight years earlier) that he kept them close to his body day after day. The scrap, which contained his central
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What is a person? You are a person; a stone isn’t. You have self-awareness; a tree doesn’t. You can be moral; electricity is amoral. You are alive; a corpse is not. “Person” usually refers to a living human being, although from a Christian point of view “person” also refers to God, and we assume that
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There are only so many different views on the question of God. Do you know what you believe?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. -Anonymous Try this: close your eyes, and for the next thirty seconds do not think about a pink elephant. Remember, you are not to think of a pink elephant. Ready, set, go. How far did you make it? And what does that tell
What Great Idea Matters to You? Read More »
Once we did a survey in our church and one of the questions was: “Do you often feel lonely and unnoticed?” A full 75% of the respondents said no, which made me glad for those who had connected with other people. But my heart went out to the 25% who said yes. Loneliness is an
God Was Never Alone Read More »
Everyone wants to discover something new and fresh. Discovery is intriguing and invigorating. Discovery reminds us that our lives are not over yet, that there is more to life than what we can see right now, and that all of us have yet-undiscovered potential. In 1804 an expedition commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson set out
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If God were great but not good, he would manipulate, deceive, and just plain lie. But because he is good, he is true and he is truthful. When we say that God is true, it is so much more than saying he is accurate (like a bank statement being true or a newspaper report being
God’s Attributes: He Is True Read More »
The Scottish theologian P. T. Forsyth believed that there are really two overarching attributes of God: holiness and love. Put the pieces together (because God is a whole and complete reality), and you can speak of the “holy love” of God. His holiness is our assurance that he is different from the defilements of this
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