Culture

My wife and I had the opportunity this summer of visiting Normandy, France. A highlight of our trip was a day spent touring a small section of the D-Day landing beaches as well as the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. It was a moving and somber experience as we reflected on the thousands of young...

One of my pet peeves as a pastor, is the use of Christian jargon. We sometimes use words or phrases, but are unable to define the terms! In other words: We don’t understand what we are saying! The phrase “besetting sin” is a good example. The phrase is from the translation of the Greek word:...

Humans have been fascinated by themselves since the earliest times in the history of our race. From the crude stick figures painted on the walls of caves in prehistoric times through to the sophisticated image of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man , or the mathematical musings around the Fibonacci...

He surely saw him from the boat. The Lord watched the erratic and unstable demoniac who was as unruly as the storm he had recently silenced. The man’s appearance alone made him an imposing figure against the otherwise peaceful shores of the Garasenes. One can’t help but wonder if the disciples...

What is discernment? Is it knowing who to unfollow and who to mute? What books not to read? What foods and medicines will make you sick? If this is the case, then I just need to make the right choices about what to avoid, and all will be well. But what if discernment is more than just what and who...

The Elizabethan polymath, Francis Bacon, counseled, “Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” Undoubtedly sound advice. But of the more than 300,000 books published annually in US, how is one to sort through such a smorgasbord of literary...

The story of the man born blind in John 9 is well known. It’s one of those stories that take work to read because we have to disabuse ourselves of contemporary concern for those with disabilities. For example, there were no Seeing Eye dogs, Braille books or reading machines. This man was a beggar...

Charlotte of Bourbon – from Runaway Nun to Self-Sacrificing Wife For twelve long years, Charlotte tried to assert her legal rights to leave Notre-Dame de Jouarre, the abbey which she had been forced to join. Finally, in February 1572, she escaped. The circumstances of her flight are uncertain. Some...

Argument from Culture There is an argument, not exactly new, that has been making its way through the church today. The argument from culture , let’s call it the argumentam ad culturam , is an attempt to undermine the legitimacy and primacy of Scripture for Christian living, while claiming to honor...

The Shocking Case of the Hungarian Galley Slaves – A 17 th -century Tale of Religious Persecution One of the worst examples of religious persecution in European history happened in the decade between 1671 and 1681, when the Hungarian Roman Catholic authorities determined to eradicate Protestantism...