While recently walking in the meadows of public discourse, William Bennett stepped in the cow pie of truth. He mentioned that if evil, pragmatic outcomes were your only consideration, you could reduce crime by evil means. He said, “…if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort …
Reductio Ad Infernum
One of the standard observations made against the so-called legitimization of homosexual “marriages” in our country is that once you throw the biblical standard of marriage out (one man, one woman, ideally one time), you have not just opened the door for homosexual unions, but also for every other kind of union the troubled gonads …
Apostles or Refugees?
All Christians at all times live in the culture they live in. The ancient Christian in Ephesus spoke Greek and wore the clothes available for purchase in that city. When he went for lunch, certain foods were available to him and other foods were not. At the same time, he was called to live in …
Got My Fingers Crossed!
A few days ago, I recorded here the news that the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression had included Southern Slavery As It Was on their list of banned books. There was an article about this in the UI student newspaper, and today William Ramsey, one of our our intolerista professors here, wrote to the …
A Form of Battle
Our gracious God, we glory in You, and in what You have given to us. We know that what we are doing here — resting in You — is actually a form of battle. We thank You for overcoming our enemies while we sit at table. We thank You for the means You have selected …
Solomon in All His Glory
The name of Solomon is still evocative today. He is a striking picture of a man who possesses. In fact, his name is most familiar to us as a possessive adjective—Solomon’s wisdom, Solomon’s mines, Solomon’s wives, Solomon’s wealth, Solomon’s temple. And this characteristic of possession is the basis of the story we must tell about …
Look At This
Some of you may be interested in the work and ministry of Steve Beck, found here. But the thing I wanted to encourage you to look at is a DVD he recently put together that walks you step by step, mouse click to mouse click, in the making and selling of recordings. You can find …
Idleness and Gossip
Everyone knows that one of the sins of the tongue is gossip, but we are sometimes vague about what actually constitutes the sin. Gossip is not a sin that consists of simply passing on information. Saying something like, “Did you hear that Susan is engaged now?” is not gossip. Gossip is the sin of passing …
Peace to You
The various aspects of our worship service were shown forth in a type in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. We come before God confessing our sins, which is the guilt offering, and we offer up the name of Jesus Christ, which cleanses all our guilt. Then our service corresponds to the ascension offering, …
Making the World New
A central feature of proper Christian worship is a right understanding of the promised presence of God. But too often we assent to such phrases with a superficial and glib understanding — of course God is present with us in worship because He is omnipresent, and this leads us to think nothing unique happens here …