46% of likely voters approved of the Texas Heartbeat Act, while 43% disapproved. 11% were unsure. - C.Post

“…ministers can err in one of two directions….such specificity that we run the risk of undermining the confidence God’s people should have in the English translations of Scripture. Or…we can gloss over important textual variants and confuse believers as to what to do with them.” - C.Leaders

“But authority holds only in its own jurisdiction. The government holds sway over externals, the Word of god over internals. ‘The civil magistrate protects not minds but bodies and goods from manifest harm. The Gospel protects minds from ungodly ideas, the devil, and external death.’” - Veith

“This is the second article in a series on applying the fruit of the Spirit in the workplace, and our topic today is the relationship between love (the first characteristic mentioned in the fruit of the Spirit) and work.” - IFWE

“The real issue is twofold: what we should expect from God in this regard and what we should do with any invading impressions that come our way.” - Packer

“Most antiquarians … tell us that the Hittites developed iron metallurgy around 1500 BC. However, Moses in the Pentateuch tells us otherwise… . that iron-working actually predates the flood since Tubal-Cain forged iron (Genesis 4:22).” - AiG

“We live within a society (and sometimes even attend churches) that views law as intrinsically negative. Commands equal negative restrictions. … But, a proper distinction between the law and grace does not conclude that the law is negative – only that it is insufficient to save us.” - Zach Dietrich

A few years ago I decided that using my wife’s kitchen shears to edge around my house’s sidewalks was not only embarrassing my family (my neighbors made comments), but it was also highly impractical. So I went to the local home improvement store to buy a trimmer—a process that was far more perplexing than I had anticipated. The number of trimmers to choose from delayed my usual in-and-out approach to shopping. I finally settled on the one that would best meet my needs, and it has served me well ever since.

“It’s hard to believe that this year’s freshman class doesn’t remember anything about 9/11. Those arriving at college in the past few weeks were three or four when the Towers fell.” - Kevin DeYoung

“Many condemn nation-building, not so much because it’s wrong as because it’s impossible. Cultures run too deep, they say, to change from the outside. No weapon or army is stronger than a people’s will to resist. Just consider Afghanistan (twice), Vietnam, or the collapse of European empires.” - Breakpoint

“Serving as a bi-vocational pastor has undeniable challenges…both pastors and police officers statistically have high burnout rates. To maintain his mental, emotional and spiritual health, he surrounds himself with biblical support, from his wife and the elders at his church to weekly meetings with a Christian counselor.” - C.Post

“Abortion-vulnerable women often face numerous challenges: poverty, lack of family/partner support, housing insecurity, etc. Those circumstances won’t be any less difficult when abortion is illegal in her state” - BPNews

“It’s not that our students ‘got smarter’ when they left home; rather, someone actually treated them as intelligent. Rather than dumbing down the message, the agnostics and atheists treat our youth as intelligent and challenge their intellect with “deep thoughts” of question and doubt.” - C.Leaders

“Those who see churches as helpful has increased 4-percentage points since prior to the pandemic, when 58% said religious organizations were having a positive impact in August 2019.” - Lifeway

“In short order, we went from 250 songs everyone knows to more than 250,000 songs nobody knows… . The key is familiarity. People enjoy singing songs they know.” - C.Leaders

“Countless books have been written — and films made — about the Warsaw Ghetto… . Pockets of militant Jewish resistance surfaced in smaller ghettos across Nazi-occupied central-eastern Europe too. But those stories are not as widely known.” - NPR

“One of the more common mischaracterizations is that Thomas Aquinas is a pure rationalist who subverts the Scriptures at the expense of his philosophical musings. Contrary to this narrative, Aquinas was a man who was steeped in the Scriptures. For Thomas, the love of God is more important than the knowledge of God, even though both are absolutes.” - Credo

Jason Hill “goes on to say that the only remedy for racial conflict is to quit our habit of our self-identification on the basis of race. Past inequities need to be set aside—he uses the term forgiven” - P&D

(Posted in July of 2020)

My thoughts below predate COVID-19, masks, hydroxychloroquine, or churches defying public health emergency orders. Last fall, different controversies were exposing problems in how believers evaluate conflicting claims and decide what to believe.

But those problems are still with us, and the current raft of controversies is exposing them even more painfully.

“I can still hear that wondrous noise—the unmistakable high-pitched sound of our daughter Camille’s heart beating fast and strong. Words can’t describe our relief and delight. Even though I was a pro-life lawyer and activist, politics was the furthest thing from my mind. I couldn’t think. I could only feel joy.” - David French

“While individual NRB members have wide-ranging views on the subject, the association has not weighed in on the question of the personal choices being made with respect to vaccines, because this is outside the scope of NRB’s public policy engagement” - CPost

Related: NRB Executive Committee investigates a recent staff dismissal (press release)

“I relished reading about prayer, talking about prayer, trying different kinds of prayer, and encouraging others in their lives of prayer. And most of all, I loved the sweet intimacy of prayer itself …. And then one day, without warning, reason, or explanation, that sense of sweet intimacy was gone. … My very relationship with God seemed threatened.” - C.Today

“In these stories of loss, trauma, redemption, and eternal hope, we see that God was, is, and always will be at work—even in the darkest moments.” - TGC

“One of Christianity’s greatest strengths is its explanatory power. Christianity can explain the human experience and the human condition far better than any other worldview. …It’s especially true when it comes to explaining human activity and ability, such as artistry, athleticism, and work.” - Breakpoint

“The new initiative, first reported by the Jewish Daily Forward, was formally unveiled on a conference call organized by Intercessors for America and led by longtime Trump adviser Paula White. The Pentecostal megachurch pastor said…” - RNS

“In their recent 2021 study, Lifeway Research found that eleven percent of American evangelicals have read all of Scripture, nine percent have read all of Scripture more than once, ten percent none at all … twelve percent almost all of it.” - Ref21

I’d like to share the way our congregation structures its worship service. I have nothing special to offer―only my own reflections on where our congregation is, and perhaps where we’ll go. What we do on Sunday mornings, and how we do it, is important. Perhaps my comments here will be useful.

The Missing Link

Many Christians don’t think critically about what happens on Sundays. This isn’t a rebuke, just an observation. Over 40 years ago, Robert G. Rayburn shared similar misgivings:

“…the vast majority of American adults (69%) self-identify as ‘Christian’ and embrace many basic tenets of the faith. But a closer look shows that at the same time, many in this group hold views clearly in conflict with traditional teachings and only 9% actually possess a biblical worldview” - CRC

“They accurately cited that I did not find anti-Christian sentiment increasing but did not cite that I also found that those with anti-Christian sentiment have grown more powerful in society over the past few decades” - George Yancey

“The next issue of The Master’s Seminary Journal just released. It’s on regeneration. I contributed this article…. This article inductively examines what key passages in the Gospel according to John say about election, regeneration, and faith” - Andy Naselli