The Christian’s Mindset: Seven Characteristics
One of the most prominent and under-noticed themes of the New Testament is thinking. From the Gospels to the Epistles, all people in general – and Christians in particular – are urged to use their minds, to think, and to…
Five Simple Ideas for Family Worship
Let’s face it: family devotions can be challenging. For beginners, the discipline of gathering as a family each day can be daunting; even those who have done it for a while may weary of the same routine. Fortunately, each family…
Video: The Act of Toleration of 1689
May 24, 1689 is an important date in the history of religious freedom. It marks the anniversary of the signing of the Toleration Act of 1689, which provided legal religious freedoms to many in Great Britain. I’ve begun to mark…
Intellectual Superiority in the Christian Life
Does Christianity entitle us to some sort of intellectual superiority over others? Some Christians seem to think so. They demonstrate a haughty approach to the unsaved world, but the early church demonstrated a very different approach. Consider the following five…
Christ or Baal?
Two Committed Classes “As we have those among us whose motto is in deed and in truth, “All for Christ;” so we have a crowd of others who will know nothing of the Savior, who have turned their back on…
Let Your Name Be Sanctified
The first request in the Lord’s prayer is, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name” (Matthew 6:9). Evidently this is an important request. It is listed first. It is more important than ‘our daily bread.’ It is a prayer…
Departing the Camp
Modern Jerusalem looks nothing like the City of David in the time of Jesus. Today it is a bustling metropolis, complete with high-rise apartment buildings, sprawling suburbs, and densely-packed roadways. Yet Zion was once contained within walls. Outside the walls,…
John Brown on the Christian Race
“The whole of the Christian duty is represented as a race – a race set before them, which they must run, and “run with patience.” The principal ideas suggested by this figurative view of Christian duty are the following: It…
Timeline: New Testament History
Without timelines, I find that it is nearly impossible to understand history. Timelines provide a reference point – a sort of framework or scaffolding – that allows visual learners like me to place events in their context. Timelines are also…
They Desire A Better Country
Jesus described the last times as a scene of “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.”[1] Recent events seem to confirm this: terrorism in France, unrest in Turkey, and murder in America are…
