Opinion

Finding the courage to ask tough questions

Blackstone Grif
30 Sep 2010
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When I am around you, how do you feel?A speaker posed that question once at a meeting I was attending. It really made me think. How do others feel when I am around them? Of course, it’s a question that can be difficult to ask – because often the answer is difficult to digest! If you were to ask that question to someone who promised to be totally honest, and you were truly willing to listen, the answer could be life-changing.After the meeting where the speaker presented that question, I immediately wanted to ask that question to a few key […]

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God is more powerful than caffeine

Blackstone Grif
3 Sep 2010
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I hate learning lessons the hard way.  Is there anyone who does?  I think I may have met a few.  Of course we all know that we grow and gain invaluable understanding when God teaches us a lesson and we finally get it, some sooner than others.  This past month, God had a few lessons for me to learn whether I liked it or not.Staying up late during deadline week just comes with the position of publisher.  It is expected and necessary for the paper to get out on time.  But this month, no matter how much espresso, Red Bull, […]

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I believe in Jesus … Now what?

Allen Baumgarten
2 Sep 2010
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God is in the business of saving and transforming lives. The Bible’s authors exhort us to put our faith in Christ as God’s answer to our sin problem. Our sin, which is just the Bible’s term for “lawlessness” and disobedience to God (see 1 John 3:4), effectively separates us from fellowship with God.In His love, however, God graciously foreordained that Jesus, God the Son, would pay the price for our sin against God. That is, our salvation from the effects and consequences of sin, both now and in eternity to come, is found in our faith in Christ’s death on […]

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Deficits, Debt, and Self-Deception

Samuel Gregg
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It passed almost unnoticed, but in late July the Obama Administration raised the Federal Government’s budget deficit forecast for fiscal year 2011 to $1.4 trillion. That’s up from February’s forecast of $1.267 trillion. In July alone, the Federal Government’s deficit was $165 billion, of which $20 billion was for interest-payments on debt.The long-term outlook is even worse. The U.S. Government is now borrowing approximately 41 cents of every dollar it spends. It’s also predicting additional borrowing of $8.5 trillion until 2020. If that eventuates, America’s national debt would exceed 77 percent of its annual economic output.At some point, most of […]

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I, Myself

Allen Baumgarten
1 Dec 2009
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Of all the subjects I have written about in this column, this month’s subject is perhaps the most thought – provoking and sobering. For some time, I have desired to write about the attribute of Christ-like humility. But I, at least, do not feel equipped to write about such an attribute since those who possess it to a depth much greater than I do, and who would hesitate to acknowledge that they even have it, could pen more graceful words about it than I could. I’ll therefore content myself to consider another attribute we find discussed frequently in Scripture, though […]

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Modern evangelicalism builds empires, not disciples

The Good News
2 Sep 2009
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A review of  ‘A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church’ Joel Osteen’s effervescent smile to the contrary, all is not well in American evangelicalism. If you grew up evangelical, or spent all your Christian life in that domain, you might, like the proverbial frog in the kettle, not know how influenced by American culture modern American evangelicalism is. Warren Cole Smith, veteran journalist and author of “A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church,” is our guide to how accomodative and consumeristic we evangelicals are in relation to culture. For instance, Smith argues that we evangelicals are just as prone to being […]

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