Resources from 2004
Early in Mark Twain's classic work The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an interesting scene in which Tom and Huck witness Injun Joe in an act of wicked deception. Twain writes that the boys stood dumb as they "heard the stony-hearted liar reel off his serene statement, they expecting every moment that the clear sky […]
In every instance in the lyrical arts, but especially Christmas music, we sing what we feel. If you want to know what a certain group believes about the biblical message, go to a Christmas service and ask why a certain repertoire is chosen. In some cases the choice of old-fashioned music represents keeping a wall […]
Political life continually confronts the contemporary Christian. Newspapers and television newscasts are filled each day with the latest acts and foibles of our government leaders, and in election years the stream of political information becomes a torrent. Bumper stickers, billboards, and lawn signs congest the quietest neighborhoods. Most believers would readily assert that Christianity cannot […]
My family and I have been reading through Jeremiah lately in our family worship. The morning I began writing this article, we read Jeremiah 22, which begins with God's telling Zedekiah, king of Judah, that if he would do justice and righteousness in obedience to his Word, "then there [would] enter the gates of [that] […]
One of the stories my much older brother tells me about the old days recounts the day when the family had just moved to a Los Angeles suburb. I should say, another L.A. suburb, since, all told, we moved about thirty times over the course of my childhood. No, my father was not in the […]
Can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it? Is there anything that God cannot do? According to Scripture, God cannot violate his own character. He cannot sin or tempt people to sin. And, Scripture declares, he cannot acquit the guilty. That is, he cannot just forgive-he cannot just let bygones be […]
As if it weren’t challenging enough to live by the Ten Commandments and the two Great Commandments (see Matt. 22:34-40), somewhere along the line someone decided that we also needed an additional “Four Spiritual Laws.” So now, right after “God so loved the world,” many Christians add, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan […]
