When Christmas isn’t Hallmark Happy
The Hallmark Channel has become as synonymous with Christmas as Bing Crosby or 34th Street were for prior generations. Hallmark movies have become so popular they are now a genre. Other content producers now make “Hallmark-type” movies for Christmas. You know the type— relatively clean, pretty cheesy, but always with a predictable story plot where…
Read MoreConversation Tool: Christmas
Start the Conversation: Everywhere you look people have decorated for Christmas. But the characters of Christmas in America range from Santa to Snoopy to the Elf on the Shelf and Jack Skellington. What is Christmas, really? And who are the characters of the real Christmas story? How in the world do we Christ back into…
Read MoreThanksliving
Christians, we are people of thanksgiving— not just for a day, but in everyday living. When we gather at our tables this week, for the nationally recognized day of Thanksgiving, here is our charge: no matter the food on the table, the amount in our bank accounts, or the ease in our circumstances— to be…
Read MoreHeeding the signs of the times
When the smoke detector goes off, what do you do? How about the fire alarm in a commercial building? What about a tornado siren blaring on a seemingly clear day? Do you heed warning lights and signs? One woman shared her survival story after ignoring the mandatory evacuation orders during Hurricane Ian, and swimming to…
Read MoreWhat must we do to be saved?
During a sermon in the fall of 2022, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, said that a Russian soldier’s death on the Ukrainian battlefield washes away the sins of that individual. Here’s what he said, according to AP: “If someone, driven by a sense of duty, the need to fulfill…
Read MoreWhat is a worldview?
The term worldview should be more than a buzzword— it should provoke us to think intentionally and critically about the forces that influence our minds and hearts. We use the word “worldview” regularly, but want to take the opportunity to slow down and pick apart what it really means and then equip you to test…
Read MoreMeeting Jesus
Things are not as they should be. Everyone can see that. We turn on the TV, check social media or talk with our neighbor and everything wrong with the world is on full display. But then, we also know we are not as we should be. We bicker, we lie, we snap at our kids…
Read MoreWhere in the Word are you?
My name is Carmen so it may not surprise you that there was a season in which I was often asked, “Where in the world are you, Carmen San Diego?” It was an educational video game released in the mid eighties and it had a catchy musical tune. When I grew tired of rolling my…
Read MoreHave it your way! American Autonomy vs Freedom within God’s Gracious Sovereignty
If you’ve been listening you’ve heard the word autonomy even if you haven’t actually heard the word. It is an ideology whose advocates today are legion. And to be clear, autonomy in an of itself is neither good nor bad – its expressions are both. Autonomy includes the ideals of self-governance, personal decision-making, and even…
Read MoreToday is a day for fools
Every year on the first of April, we all proceed a little more cautiously. We read social media with a little more skepticism. We’d rather be on the inside of an inside joke than to discover that we are the butt of one. This is a day for fools, and we’d really rather not be…
Read MorePrimer on Israel: What are the various views Christians have of Israel today?
(Originally posted October 2016) Last week, Israel’s last living “Founding Father,” Shimon Peres, died. His death reintroduces into our American newscycle the very recent history of the nation of Israel and current realities facing the Jewish people in the Middle East. As believers and students of the Bible, we should be educated on what is…
Read MoreIf God is God, who is in a position to predict what He might do?
An opinion piece appeared yesterday in the Washington Post that deserves our attention. It is penned by David von Drehle: a columnist for The Washington Post, where he writes about national affairs and politics. So he’s out of his lane here, opining about the recent action of more than 100 Roman Catholic churches in Germany…
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