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April 22, 2015Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 8:1b-8 There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,and all were scatteredthroughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,except the Apostles.Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;entering house after house and dragging out men and women,he handed them over for imprisonment. Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.Thus Philip went down to the city of Samariaand proclaimed the Christ to them.With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what...

I have been traveling and have not posted in a bit, so let me bring up another question that came from the Grand Rapids PCRT: "What is the root issue that would allow "Christian" denominations to ordain homosexuals and perform homosexual marriages?" The simple answer to this question is that such denominations have stopped granting ultimate authority to the clear teaching of the Word of God. In almost every case, they no longer regard the Scriptures as inerrant and therefore they find it easy to disregard teachings they consider offensive and antiquated. Having removed their confidence in the Bible, they...

Across Christian denominations, the debate over gay marriage has fundamentally pitted the views of socially progressive - if not radical - congregants and church leaders who are in favor of gay marriage against that of the conservative, evangelical sector that subscribes to a traditional and biblical definition of marriage. For the most part, proponents of gay marriage have been on the outs - at times waging tough battles that tear churches apart and put their ordination on the line. In the Presbyterian Church (USA), the tables seemed to have turned. Increasingly, the conservative, evangelical members of the 1.8-million-member mainline Protestant...

April 21, 2015Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 7:51—8:1a Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes:“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,you always oppose the Holy Spirit;you are just like your ancestors.Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one,whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.You received the law as transmitted by angels,but you did not observe it.” When they heard this, they were infuriated,and they ground their teeth at him.But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,looked...

April 20, 2015Monday of the Third Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 6:8-15 Stephen, filled with grace and power,was working great wonders and signs among the people.Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen,Cyreneans, and Alexandrians,and people from Cilicia and Asia,came forward and debated with Stephen,but they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.Then they instigated some men to say,“We have heard him speaking blasphemous wordsagainst Moses and God.”They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes,accosted him, seized him,and brought him before the Sanhedrin.They presented false witnesses who testified,“This man never...

After having written about Prince of Egypt several readers told me I should also watch Joseph: King of Dreams. I did and, I have to say, you all were right. Like Prince of Egypt, Joseph: King of Dreams is a must-watch because it touches on some very important things about our relationship with God: [VIDEO] Like Prince of Egypt, Joseph: King of Dreams is a must-watch because it touches on some very important things about our relationship with God: [VIDEO] 2. God guides us, but it’s up to us to act. Joseph used every opportunity he got to improve his...

It's that time againWinter's done, the garden's been started, the week is over ...Let's go listen to a love letter read from Dad Time For Church

April 19, 2015Third Sunday of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 3:13-15, 17-19 Peter said to the people:“The God of Abraham,the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus,whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presencewhen he had decided to release him.You denied the Holy and Righteous Oneand asked that a murderer be released to you.The author of life you put to death,but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.Now I know, brothers,that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;but God has thus...

Francis Cardinal George lost his long battle with cancer and died today. This is what I wrote about him back in 2012: Francis Cardinal George of the Archdiocese of Chicago is alleged to have predicted that for upholding the teachings of Christ he will die in his bed, his successor will die in a prison cell, and his successor will be executed in a public square in Chicago. Therefore, I am unsurprised that he has written an open letter exploring the “Chicago Values” cited by Mayor Emanuel when he decided to attack the free speech rights of Chick-Fil-A: Recent comments...

April 18, 2015Saturday of the Second Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 6:1-7 As the number of disciples continued to grow,the Hellenists complained against the Hebrewsbecause their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,“It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,filled with the Spirit and wisdom,whom we shall appoint to this task,whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayerand to the ministry of the word.”The proposal was acceptable to the whole community,so...

Full title: Christians in Niger Forgive Muslims Who Burned Churches and Killed Believers: 'We Want Them to Know Jesus Christ' Christians living in Niger, West Africa have offered Christ-like forgiveness to the radical Muslims who destroyed their homes and churches, are are continuing to share the Gospel in the region. On January 17, hundreds of Muslims, angered by the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, destroyed 69 churches and 11 Christian homes. Ten Christians lost their lives and hundreds more were injured in the wake of the deadly rampage. "They took pews, Bibles, chairs...

Hillary Scott says she was asleep in the back of the bus when a fire started nearby and eventually destroyed the vehicle. Her fast-acting bus driver got everyone off the bus safely, but that’s not the reason the Lady Antebellum singer is walking away with a deeper faith in God.

For the past five years I have been absolutely fascinated about how little is stated about the Two Witnesses' ministry of Revelation (Rev. 11:3-12), but also have been absolutely blown away with how much in that little given one could write a novel on! The Divine POWER and AUTHORITY given unto them by Almighty God is inconceivable but by faith we must believe it to be so. The key is knowing where they fit into Almighty God's final outworking of Biblical prophecy before the return of the Messiah (Rev.19:11-21). These two Lamp Stands of Revelation's chief ministry for 1260 days...

"I believe in the communion of saints."-Apostles' Creed THESE WORDS WERE WRITTEN into the creed about the middle of the fifth century. It would be difficult if not altogether impossible for us at this late date to know exactly what was in the minds of the Church Fathers who introduced the words into the creed, but in the Book of Acts we have a description of the first Christian communion: "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine...

Teach us, O God, that nothing is necessary to Thee. Were anything necessary to Thee that thing would be the measure of Thine imperfection: and how could we worship one who is imperfect? If nothing is necessary to Thee, then no one is necessary, and if no one, then not we. Thou dost seek us though Thou does not need us. We seek Thee because we need Thee, for in Thee we live and move and have our being. Amen “The Father hath life in himself,” said our Lord, and it is characteristic of His teaching that He thus in...

April 17, 2015Friday of the Second Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 5:34-42 A Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel,a teacher of the law, respected by all the people,stood up, ordered the Apostles to be put outside for a short time,and said to the Sanhedrin, “Fellow children of Israel,be careful what you are about to do to these men.Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important,and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed,and all those who were loyal to himwere disbanded and came to nothing.After him came Judas the Galilean at the time...

April 16, 2015Thursday of the Second Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 5:27-33 When the court officers had brought the Apostles inand made them stand before the Sanhedrin,the high priest questioned them,“We gave you strict orders did we not,to stop teaching in that name.Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teachingand want to bring this man’s blood upon us.”But Peter and the Apostles said in reply,“We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus,though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.God exalted him at his right hand as leader and...

As the world grapples with combating climate change, one world leader aiming to influence the outcome might come as a surprise. Pope Francis. The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics not only says the world must try to protect against an environmental catastrophe regardless of its cause, but he is preparing the first ever papal letter to the church’s bishops focused on the environment. He hopes it will encourage U.N. negotiators meeting in Paris in December to make courageous decisions about protecting the world from global warming, he told reporters traveling with him to the Philippines earlier this...

Just up the road from our house is a plaza or strip mall, a collection of 20 or 30 stores. This plaza has two large wings and right in the joint between the two wings is what must be the worst retail space in the city. At least, those of us who live here know that it is the worst retail space in the city. Aileen and I have been in this area for the past 15 years and in that time we have seen business after business try to make a go of it there, and not one of...

In 284 AD Diocletian, then the cavalry commander of the Roman army, was proclaimed emperor of Rome. In 302 he consulted the oracle of Apollo at Didyma and there became persuaded that those who forsook Roman worship needed to be exterminated. His government would usher in the last, largest, and bloodiest of all the official persecutions of Christianity in Rome. Thousands of men, women, and children were burned, drowned, decapitated, crucified, starved, and torn apart, so much so, that Eusebius wrote, “the murderous sword was blunted, and becoming weak, was broken.” While many nobly suffered martyrdom, others could not bear...