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How to Hang onto Truth in a Hostile Culture: Lessons from Lewis-The Silver Chair
Plato's News Cave (courtesy Imgur) Recently The New York Times launched a new subscription campaign featuring hooks like, “We’re passionate about the truth. Are you?” and “Truth is what we do better” and “Read news that values the truth.” I know what some of you are thinking: “Ba-ha-ha-ha.” It is indeed rich that a publication that has long questioned the existence of truth now lays claim to it in their advertising. Long ago the mainstream media relinquished its claim to reporting truth. Instead, at their best, they report “truth” from several different perspectives, weighting the progressive/oppressed perspective the most heavily. The result has been the loss of truth. Now we see the…
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A New Generation of Christ Followers
Children are the future generation of Christianity and we are commanded to pass on to them the teachings of the word of God. Deut. 6:4-7 NET BIBLE “Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength. These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.” A poll that was done by Child Evangelism Fellowship shows…
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Teaching Children to Respect Another’s Culture: A Look into Islam
Media coverage and conversations are everywhere about the President’s order to suspend visa entry into the U.S. from seven countries that have predominately Muslim populations. Our children are watching and listening. Unless we are proactive they will become afraid. Fear is one of Satan’s greatest tools for chaos. Throughout the Bible we are command to “fear not.” Fear of the unknown drives many to act in unwise and unkind ways. Knowledge based on facts can help us trust God and free us to treat others with kindness. As parents/teachers/Christian leaders we need to be examples. Let's teach our children to respect all people. Let's alleviate fear by teaching respectfully about…
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Harvesting our Words
Fall is finally here and with it the harvest. Words are like seeds. Once spoken they are planted in the hearts of the hearer. They too produce a harvest. I remember running to my mom crying, just a little girl hurting inside, crying because of ugly words. I was broken hearted by caustic remarks. My mother, taught me a little rhyme that she had used as a child: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” I can’t tell you how many times I used that little taunt. It did make the words stop. But words do hurt and I have the scars to prove it.…
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Shaping Abstract Truths To Form A Firm Foundation – #2- God’s Image In Mankind Became Distorted at the Fall
God has complete unity in HImself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He made humans to live in unity and community with Him. God planned from the beginning for Adam and Eve and all their descendants to walk and talk with Him daily. “ . . . the man and hiswife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day. . .” Gen 3:8 The Net Bible Imagine that for a moment, as you are going about your daily business when suddenly you hear the sound of Creator God moving about. He is with you, there to visit with you in person,…
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Lies We Tell Our Children
I feel very reluctant to write about any parenting issue, because I was and am such an incredibly flawed parent. Nevertheless, I have learned things over the years that I am trying to put into practice during what remains of my parenting years. I’d like to share some of those things with you in the hope that you may find a glimmer of something practical that you could incorporate into your parenting. It goes without saying that building into our kids spiritually is one of the biggest jobs we have as parents and perhaps one area where we may feel unsure. I’m not going to address that important area directly,…
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The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
“[I]f you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). On this Resurrection Sunday, it is important that we look at the foundational cornerstone of Christianity: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death and the grave.. The resurrection of Jesus is central to all Christian belief. The Apostle Paul even went as far as to say, “[I]f Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he…
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Seriously? Teach Toddlers about God?
I f you were given your choice of classes to teach which age group would you choose? Our last Sunday before leaving for our mission work in Japan we asked for the two year old class. If you’re a missionary going for the purpose of raising money this might not be the best class to choose. If you’re going to make an impression though, this class may just be the most impressionable. We had a wonderful time telling them how God had asked our family to go to a country far away in Japan to teach the people about Jesus. We explained that we would be in the air traveling to…
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Truth: Does it Blind or Break?
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken As long as truth is theory it blinds. As soon as truth becomes real it breaks. This is something I’ve learned across the years of my life. When I first graduated from seminary, I knew much truth. I could answer nearly every question in some way, often with biblical support. What I could not see was what I did not know. I still can’t, but I’m better at seeing some of my blind spots than I used to be… Every once in a while in my teaching preparation, I go back to an old file and review previous work on a particular passage.…
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God’s Power Tools – #5
God has given us a voice to speak forth His written Word. With our voice we are to proclaim the wonder of the Creator. The love of Christ compels us to give voice to the Good News of God’s salvation. Our fifth power tool, our voice, is an old tool but it has an amazing power to capture the interest of those we want to listen. “Until very recently in human history, most people could neither read nor write . . . spoken language was the only practical way to warn someone that there might be a snake in a nearby bush. Perhaps as a result, human hearing and speech…