Threat of divorce hard to spot among churchgoing couples, survey shows
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“[P]pastors may have difficulty helping couples save their marriages, because churchgoers on the brink of separation often keep quiet at church about their marital woes.”
An Aside: Conscience and Heart Issues (Part 8)
(Read the series so far.)
When we apply Scripture, we arrive at convictions and we obey God by living according to them. But then why the differences? Why would different believers apply Scripture differently? Why would some believers be unable, or “weak” to do things, while others, apparently, don’t apply those Scriptures, at least in that way?
If each Scripture passage has one meaning that doesn’t change based on the reader, should all readers apply it in the same way?
To answer these questions, it helps to know that all these convictions of conscience can also be thought of in terms of heart-issues. I’ll give a personal example. A few years ago, in one of our deacon meetings at church, one of our group didn’t take his hat off when we prayed together.
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Immorality Pretending to Virtue
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“The current phase of benign climate is of relatively recent origin (less than 12,000 years), and within that time frame there have been at least eight cycles of both warming and cooling, largely unaided by human activity.”
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New Muppets 'too toxic for children,' PTC says
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“In a study of ‘The Muppets,’ the Parents Television Council reports that the new TV show includes a preponderance of sexual innuendos and other offensive content not suited for children.”
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Are We All Headed in the Same Direction? (Part 7)
(Read the series so far.)
We have seen that the “weak” brother is sometimes right and the “strong” is sometimes right. Significantly, there are times when we ought to be weak—when God wants us to consider ourselves unable to do something. But is that issue-specific or believer-specific1?
“Issue-specific” means that the correct stance is specific to each issue. For example, for temple-idol-meat the correct stance is “weak,” and for market-idol-meat the correct stance is “strong (with exceptions).” Issue-specific means that every issue has a right answer that God desires for every believer.
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Kevin DeYoung's Five Questions about Sanctification and Good Works
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“In case you missed it, here’s a helpful series by Kevin DeYoung (newly appointed professor at RTS) on the issue of sanctification.”
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Apologetics & Your Kids: Part 7 - Is All Truth God's Truth?
(Read the series so far.)
Last time I asked whether the facts speak for themselves. My answer was that they do not, they are freighted with interpretations, whether right or wrong. In Part Seven I called attention to the temptation of attaching ourselves to slogans and ideas from the world. Before proceeding along the lines I started with in the last post, I want first to take two common but deadly slogans which Christians use and look at them, for though they sound alright, they have been the cause of much confusion among Christians. The phrase I have in mind today is “All Truth is God’s Truth.”
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