“We have seen that the theme of Ecclesiastes is that enjoyment and pleasure are by grace through faith, and not of works, let any man should boast” (Joy at the End of the Tether, p. 59).
Superficial All the Way Down
I don’t know whether to file this under the “postmodernism” thread, or under “creation and food,” but that’s just the way it is in these postmodern times. Categories go fuzzy on you, and boundaries aren’t what they used to be. One of our great problems today is that Christians have gotten caught up in our …
Monday Morning on the Web
Nate will be at a Barnes & Noble this Wednesday in Seattle. Here’s the info. He’ll be in Boise this weekend, but we don’t have the info on that yet. My friend Darren Doane (and director of Collision) has an interesting video take on Genesis here. Check it, as they say, out. My daughter Rachel …
7 Reasons Your Taxes Will Go Up
Or rather, 7 reasons your taxes will go up if you let them . . . 1. The first reason is that politicians say they won’t, and politicians need to lie about things like this. The most recent instance of this was Obama’s promise that if you make under 250K your taxes will go up …
Atheistic Wrecking Balls and Bulldozers
The first half of Peter Hitchens’ book concludes with a short summary of how the Christian faith declined in England over the course of the last century or so. From here in the deep weeds of secularism, it is easy to forget that the two great industrial wars of the twentieth century were wars that …
Governmental Tax Cheats
INTRODUCTION:When considering the subject of our duty to pay taxes, the Bible seems plain enough. But a lot rides on where you place the emphasis—where do the italics go? Governments exist by covenant, and governments like ours explicitly claim to exist by covenant. The word federal comes from the Latin word foedus, which means covenant. …
Two Kinds of Kings
There are two kinds of kings in Scripture. In the gospel of Mark, chapter 6, we see them placed side by side so that we might see the stark contrast between them. Herod had a big birthday bash, and the daughter of his illicit wife danced for them all, and Herod promised to give her …
Sin in our Civics
The task before us today, in these times, is that of learning how to live faithfully as Christians in the station to which we have been assigned, and yet to do it with an eye on the big picture. We need to understand that the nation will not be transformed by direct action, aimed at …
Confessing Our Slavery
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 on behalf of our sorry nation …
Holy Spirit Markets Are Kind of Like CostCo
So let us begin this brief economic primer with these inspirational words from Dave Barry: “The question is: What can we, as citizens, do to reform our tax system? As you know, under our three-branch system of government, the tax laws are created by Satan. But he works through the Congress, so that’s where we …