Opinion

The Company Line

Newton Fairweather
12 Jan 2022
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company line

(Scroll down to leave a comment on the “company line.”) “A Few Good Men” Recently I was in a bible study that I have been attending for almost two years. I was one of many that attended the class, and I have grown to appreciate not only the fellowship but the friendships that have emerged. It is really a unique space. From this, I am convinced that GOD has a sense of humor, as it is a gathering of people who are all from different sides of the tracks. From time to time, I have asked myself, what am I […]

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Open Carry: A Bad Idea for Florida

The Good News
1 Mar 2016
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Sheriff Scott Israel   With more than 350 mass shootings in the United States in 2015, gun violence weighs heavily in everyone’s thoughts.  Having more guns brandished openly on our streets is not the answer, yet that is exactly what will happen if a very dangerous bill passes in Tallahassee this year. The “open carry” bill would further weaken Florida’s already permissive gun laws by allowing concealed weapon permit holders to carry their guns openly and visibly virtually anywhere.  This “Wild West” open carry proposal would make Florida a more dangerous and menacing place, not a safer place.  That is […]

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Halloween or Reformation Day?

Scott Manor
1 Oct 2015
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What are we supposed to make of Halloween? I don’t think anyone really knows. Somehow, bizarrely, it has turned into a socially acceptable, culturally-embraced evening for children to dress up as ghosts, ninjas, princesses or athletes and approach total strangers’ houses under the cover of darkness asking them for candy. Last time I recall trick or treating it was the late 1980’s and I was dressed in a homemade, itchy costume meant to resemble ALF, America’s favorite TV alien with an appetite for cats. For my neighbor, Halloween means it’s time to break out their massive inflatable black cat in […]

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Dependence Day!

Dr. Tommy Boland
1 Jul 2014
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dependence

This month we celebrate American Independence Day, representing the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. This was the day the Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence, having already declared the independence of the colonists from the authority of the British on July 2, 1776. As important as this day is in the life of our great nation for our independence, in contrast I pray we will be reminded to declare our utter dependence upon God, not only this day, but every day on this side of heaven.  “I am the true vine, and my Father […]

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Jesus & the American Dream

Dr. John Hawkins
5 Nov 2013
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Many American believers find themselves struggling with integrating their faith and their culture at times. This is especially true when it comes to the idea of success, ambition and goals in their lives. Culture influences everyone including Christians. Every American is indoctrinated in the concept of the “American Dream,” as well as in capitalism early in life. Can these philosophies co-exist with biblical Christianity? After all, Jesus taught humility, servanthood and principles such as, “The last shall be first.” America is a materialistic society with the negatives that come with that philosophy. Many wonder, “Am I compromising my faith by […]

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Tools of Gossip

Philip Huber
2 Jul 2013
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Parties and picnics are a huge part of summer where we gather with friends and family for hamburgers and hotdogs, potato salad and coleslaw, watermelon and popsicles. In the midst of all this socializing, gossip seeps in virtually unnoticed. Constant exposure has deadened our sensitivity to its soiling effect. We have set a place for gossip at our table, and the table cloth has become dingy. The silverware is set neatly around a plate piled high with gossip. The knife “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret” (Proverbs 11:13, NIV). Gossip is a knife that […]

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Does Grace Make You Lazy?

Tullian Tchividjian
5 Apr 2013
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The gospel doxologically declares that because of Christ’s finished work for you, you already have all of the justification, approval, security, love, worth, meaning and rescue you long for and look for in a thousand different people and places smaller than Jesus. God does not relate to us based on our feats for Jesus but on Jesus’ feats for us. Because Jesus came to secure for us what we could never secure for ourselves, life does not have to be a tireless effort to establish ourselves, justify ourselves or validate ourselves. He came to rescue us from the slavish need […]

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Give Me Law or Give Me Death

Tullian Tchividjian
10 Feb 2013
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Les Miserables profoundly pronounces the contrast between law and grace. The most powerful scene in the 2012 movie release is Inspector Javert’s song right before he kills himself. Javert embodies our natural addiction to law and our natural aversion to grace. Committed to the rigorous inflexibility of the law, Javert has been given grace time and time again from the very one he has mercilessly hunted for decades, Jean Valjean. The grace of Valjean haunts and radically disorients Javert. Javert sings: “Who is this man? What sort of devil is he, to have me caught in a trap and choose […]

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All Things New

Philip Huber
13 Jan 2013
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A new year offers a fresh start, an opportunity for reflection and anticipation. Resolutions are made as to how things will be different this time through the calendar’s rotation from January to December. Vices will be conquered and goals will be met in this new bundle of 365 days. Familiar and unfamiliar A new year is unmistakably familiar. From the cooling of winter, to the blooming of spring, to the color of summer, to the bounty of fall, each season has its own recognizable character, a pattern that holds year after year. Birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays will crop up with […]

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Grace: Law Without Gospel Leads To Sin

Tullian Tchividjian
6 Jan 2013
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I received this letter a few weeks ago from someone I’ve never met. He sent it to me as a word of encouragement regarding how the message of grace has revitalized his love for God. I hesitated to post it because, given the kind things he says about my work, I didn’t want to appear self-promotional. But what he says about the effect of grace in revitalizing his spiritual life and the inability of the law to engender what it commands is so good that I just had to share it with you. He wrote: “Over the last couple of […]

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