life. faithful.

When my daughter was about 3, she would have told you, without hesitation, that she wasn't a little girl--she was a puppy. She would be a puppy at the grocery store , much to my embarrassment. She was committed, let me tell you. There was more than once that we had to get onto her for licking somebody or for barking in response to a question she was asked, or to tell her to get up off the floor and walk on her feet instead of crawling on all fours. Why do I bring that up? Because we have somehow decided that kids are capable of making life-altering decisions when they are at an age when it used to be considered completely developmentally normal for them to pretend to be any number of things, from a puppy to a train. What has never been normal, though, is to tell a child that they actually are whatever they are pretending to be. Now, though, we're supposed to go along with whatever someone is pretending to be.  We've come to a point in our society where it has somehow be...

Our kids are under attack, and it seems like we're just going along with it. I don't mean from violence like the recent school shooting that devastated a community and has left so many families reeling. Things like that are obvious, and we have no issue taking a stand against them. We may not know exactly what we need to do, but we all agree that it is something we can't tolerate. What I'm talking about is something more subtle. What I'm talking about is a battle for the souls of our children, and it's a battle the enemy seems to be fighting with no resistance from those of us who are supposed to the protectors. When was the last time you watched something that promoted traditional, Christian values? Something that didn't show "alternative" lifestyles or people hopping into bed with each other as things that are totally normal and acceptable? Or maybe the more important question, when was the last time you stopped watching a tv show or movie with y...

Recently, the New York Times published an article singing the praises of President Biden's Catholicism, saying that he is " perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in half a century." The mention how his life has been " steeped in Christian rituals and practices" and talk about how his Catholicism directs his life and his policies. They cheer about how his faith doesn't focus on all the divisive aspects of Christianity like abortion and sexuality, but instead focuses on climate change and racial equity. They hold him up as a bastion of what truly tolerant, liberal Christianity should look like--someone who doesn't do the bidding of the horrible Conservative Christians who have been in power for way too long. Like so many are so quick to do, they praised liberal Christianity for being quick to unite in love and quick to ignore all those "hateful" aspects of the Bible that point out sin. One of the things the writer of the arti...

“At our church, we believe...” “Our stance on xyz is...” “ You should do this , but never do that .” “A good Christian would never...” “You can't be a Christian and vote for...” I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of hearing things that start like that. It seems those kinds of comments are especially prevalent right now, pouring in from both sides of very issue. Every time you turn around, somebody new is weighing in on the issues. We're bombarded by people telling us what our stance should be, what we should be offended by, and how we're being offensive to other people. Sometimes, it's enough to make me want to close out the world. If you've ever been around me, you've very likely heard me say that I don't like people. While that's not exactly true (I just don't like incompetence and ignorance), it is true that sometimes I wouldn't mind becoming a bit of a hermit. As followers of Christ, t...

I like a good debate. A good debate gets people thinking. It makes them dig deep and really focus on what they think about a topic and why they think that way. It gets you to truly listen to someone who is one a different side of the issue and lets you hear their point of view. To have a good debate, you have to understand your opponent. You have to be able to see where they are coming from so that you can present logical, well thought out arguments in the hopes of getting the other person to start seeing your side of the issue just a little bit more. A good debate challenges those involved, both the people actually debating and those who are simply observing the debate. The problem is, right now we aren't seeing good debates. Instead, our world is full of people whose idea of debate is pointing fingers, slinging insults, and pouring hatred into already tense situations. People get on facebook to "debate" an issue with people they know nothing about, yet it seems lik...

I was greeted a couple of mornings ago by a word of warning from my sister. Her post went right along with a series of sermons a friend from high school--a pastor now--has been giving at his church lately. In Sarah's own words (and yes, I got her permission first!): "I believe there is danger in taking a verse out of context. Every verse was put in its place for a reason, picked by God himself. If you remove that verse and use it to fit your own purpose you have changed the very essence of it." by Sarah It seems like such a common thing lately--people pick and choose which verses they want to put on display for one reason or another. I guess that's been happening since the Scriptures were first written down, but is sure seems prevalent now. No matter which side of an issue someone is on , it seems like they twist verses to show how Jesus would be on their side. People dismiss the verses that make them uncomfortable or that don't fit in line with the po...

It feels like the world is falling apart. In all honesty, it's been falling apart since the moment sin entered the Garden. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics says that order tends to chaos, meaning an ordered system will become disordered over time, and that's exactly what has been happening since this earth began. We've been sheltered here in the United States, to be truthful. We've had the chance to live in a country founded on belief in the Creator, started by men who knew that only God's blessings and mercy could sustain such a country. But now, it seems as if our country--and those leading it--has turned its back on God. We've redefined life, marriage, love, right, and wrong, things that were never ours to define to begin with. We've accepted sin--even condoned it--in every facet of life: greed, sexual impurity, envy, deceit, gossip, arrogance, disobedience, and faithlessness are all commonplace (see Romans 1:24-32 ). As we look around at our country an...

Tolerance. It seems to be something of a buzz word lately, with everybody demanding tolerance and accusing the opposition--whoever that happens to be at the time--of being intolerant. My original plan for this post was a call to tolerance for both sides, but as I've been looking into it more deeply I've come to a conclusion some people might find alarming: Christianity is and must be inherently intolerant. Now, hopefully you'll stick with me for a bit and hear me out--I know that probably sounds strange, but I promise I'm going somewhere with it. tolerate: allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference Society tells Christians (and so do some preachers and teachers in the church) to be tolerant, that we should respect the beliefs of others as being equally valid. Many today try to say that loving others--which is what Christ stressed above all commandments other than loving Go...