Culture

Two Battlefronts

[581 words] A Christian friend from a third world country told me, “America is in a war.” That war is inside our land. It is a moral and spiritual conflict. We have been saying this for years, and we sense it now more than ever. To hear someone who was raised in such a different…

Will Our Kids Tear Their Clothes?

[415 words] When I was a kid in the 70’s, tearing your clothes was a horrible event. A mother’s admonition was, “Don’t tear a hole in your jeans, or I’ll have to patch them!” It was an accidental, tragic thing, usually occurring due to a child’s negligence.  In Bible times, though, tearing one’s clothes was…

Upside Down

[293 words] What impact should you as a Christian have on society? Should you be passive or active in the lives of the people around you? How do we help people become better? How can we help the sinner become a saint? We are sometimes reluctant to become involved in social change. We would rather…

The Danger of Desensitization

[117 words] It’s a real danger for Christians to become so desensitized by the entertainment we consume or the causes we support that we revert back to talking as if we never were born again. Maybe some rationalize their crude language, saying, “I only say these words when I’m really upset;” “But the cause is…

Christianity is Good for You!

[182 words] It turns out that Christianity is good for you, and good for your kids. Aren’t I Captain Obvious? Well, I suppose if you have been listening too much to certain atheists it might not be obvious. Richard Dawkins has claimed teaching children to accept their parent’s religion is child abuse, and suggests it’s…

Clean Air

[434 words] There’s a new heat pump on the south end of the “preacher’s home.” I was there when the repair guys were pulling out the old one. The compressor died. It was no big surprise as all mechanical things fail, wear out, or break, sooner or later. However, there was an unexpected bit of…

Desensitized by Saturation

[343 words] The practice of desensitization by saturation is very common one. Just take a moment and look back in your life and compare your past to what is allowed and permitted in our culture today. I understand that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecc. 1:9) and the sin we deal with today…

How the Romans Won the War and Lost the Peace

[294 words] William Barclay, in his commentary on Thessalonians, states that during the period of the Roman Republic, the Romans had not a single divorce for a 520-year period. However, as they moved away from the Republic into more of a socialistic empire, things began to change. Although they had previously conquered the Greeks militarily,…

Elements of a Depraved Culture

[500 words] No God. People have many gods, but not God. They have the god of pleasure. They worship the god of money. Their “god is their belly” (Phil. 3:19). Though the creation plainly declares God (Psa. 19:1), they still refuse to acknowledge Him. No Fear. When men turn to themselves, they become presumptuous, self-willed,…

Evil Exists

[411 words] “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men” (Revelation 2:2). Modern philosophy suggests that there is something good in everyone. Thoroughly “bad” or “evil” persons are not even considered to exist. Everyone who commits particularly heinous deeds do so because they are innocent products of…

Rise and Shine!

[394 words] I was conscious enough at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday to hear my dad step inside our doorway and turn on the light. My dad would say, “Rise and shine, my sons!” We got up to our daily chores of cooking breakfast, making coffee, fixing mom and dad’s lunch pails and their thermoses,…