“Men who build empires frequently find themselves holding a grizzly bear by the ears. They more they do, the less they are able to do. The more control they amass, the less control they have. The more power they they acquire, the more powerless they feel. This is because the vanity of increase, the futility …
Well, Tough
“You will be required at times to set before your congregations things that they may not wish to hear — doctrines they don’t agree with, ethical demands they are unwilling to submit to” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 193).
How Secularists Fence the Table
Sociologists speak of plausibility structures, those shared community assumptions that make shared assumptions make sense. If you grew up Mormon in southeast Idaho, celestial marriage makes sense. If you grew up in Alabama, not so much. This undeniable truth is one of the things that tends to make educated sociologists, and those who love them, …
The Heart of the Law
INTRODUCTION:A very popular mistake among Christians is that of contrasting love and the law, as though we had to pick and choose. Will we live according to love, or according to the law? But if we must love, isn’t that a law, a great commandment? And if we keep the law truly, won’t we realize …
Nabals at the Supper
In 1 Samuel 25, we are told the story of Nabal, Abigail, and David. It was the time of shearing, a time of prosperity for Nabal, a prosperity made possible by David. Nabal was celebrating this by means of a drunken feast. When messengers came from David, seeking to be included in the blessing, Nabal …
Beyond Capacity to Repay
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, we confess to You now that we are a nation …
Inside Outside
The message today contains a section on debts, and the ways we sin against our duty to love others through a financial lack of love. This exhortation, and the confession that follows it, is a preparation for that message. We have grown accustomed to identify love with a feeling, and from there, we have grown …
Hindus, Tea Parties, and Social Justification
In order to offer someone a financial reward without him working for it, the government must first ensure that somebody else works for a financial reward without getting it. There is no other way. This reality is obscured by the dynamics of social justification. In every corporate body, there are the justified and the unjustified. …
How Noah’s Ark Was Way Too Wet
James Davison Hunter has this to say about contemporary Christian political involvement. “These qualifications notwithstanding, the reality is that politics is the tactic of choice for many Christians as they think about changing the world . . . It is not an exaggeration to say that the dominant public witness of the Christian churches in …
Profound Philosophical Differences
“Men stand for office because they want to get into a position that would enable them to begin stealing money with a backhoe. This is affected in our nation somewhat by our very fine two-party system, which means that we have fierce debates about what color the backhoe should be” (Joy at the End of …