This Sunday, Christians will ”celebrate” Pentecost Sunday. I put “celebrate” in quotes because, if you attend an evangelical church in the United States, there’s a high probability that Pentecost will not mentioned at all.
You are currently browsing jls’s articles.
An excerpt from an article written by Anonymous which appeared yesterday in National Review Online:
Imagine a drug so powerful it can destroy a family simply by distorting a man’s perception of his wife. Picture an addiction so lethal it has the potential to render an entire generation incapable of forming lasting marriages and so widespread that it produces more annual revenue — $97 billion worldwide in 2006 — than all of the leading technology companies combined. Consider a narcotic so insidious that it evades serious scientific study and legislative action for decades, thriving instead under the ever-expanding banner of the First Amendment.
According to an online statistics firm, an estimated 40 million people use this drug on a regular basis. It doesn’t come in pill form. It can’t be smoked, injected, or snorted. And yet neurological data suggest its effects on the brain are strikingly similar to those of synthetic drugs. Indeed, two authorities on the neurochemistry of addiction, Harvey Milkman and Stanley Sunderwirth, claim it is the ability of this drug to influence all three pleasure systems in the brain — arousal, satiation, and fantasy — that makes it “the pièce de résistance among the addictions.”
Read the rest of the article.
Tags: Sexuality
Reforming the Social Security program has often been called “the third rail of American politics” because if you touch it, you will get burned. The issues involved are so divisive, affecting individuals and families at such a personal level, that most national political leaders will avoid this subject at all costs.
Similarly, there is an electrified third rail in discussions about Christian unity. Being the naïve/pompous/foolish person that I am, I will now climb down onto the subway tracks, bend over, reach out, and grab this third rail with both hands.
Tags: Catholicism, Church History, Doctrine
John Armstrong’s new book Your Church is Too Small is a plea for unity in the Body of Christ. Unity is not the same thing as uniformity. Christians have always disagreed among themselves on countless issues of faith and practice. Of course, there are certain basic things that must be believed in order for one to be welcomed into the Body of Christ. But as I read what the New Testament says about the Church, I have to conclude that diversity within the Body is normal, healthy and absolutely necessary.
Tags: Church History, Church Trends
A new book by John H. Armstrong, Your Church is Too Small, has just been released by Zondervan. John is a first-rate Christian scholar, a provocative and prolific writer, and a dynamic speaker. He teaches apologetics at Wheaton Graduate School, but he spends the bulk of his time writing, speaking and personally ministering to pastors and Christian leaders whom he has identified as sharing his vision for reformation and revival .He is the founder and president of ACT3, a ministry designed to allow him to use his unique spritual gifts in the service of Christ.
Tags: Books, Church History, Church Trends
Here at Seed, we have been thinking a lot about sex, and in the process, we have become frustrated. Why? Because discussions about sex veer off in so many directions, too many to cover in one evening or even one semester. Pornography. Dating and courtship. Modesty in dress and behavior. Dealing with sexual temptation. Premarital sex, hooking up and live-in relationships. Homosexuality. The list goes on and on.
As the semester marches forward, it is becoming very difficult to make sense of it all. Realistically, there is no way that we are going to synthesize everything into a series of articles on well-defined topics. The time has come to just put some words down and launch them into cyberspace. Let me begin this process by sharing a few random thoughts, arranged in no particular order. These first random thoughts are about pornography.
Tags: Sexuality
Thanks to Steve Lutz, campus minister of CCO, for pointing out this video. This one really resonates with me.
[I couldn't figure out how to embed it, so clicking on the image will open another window. If your internet connection is not fast, turn off the HD option while viewing.]
Tags: Church Trends
These days, Christians don’t seem to talk much about hell. This doctrine, more than any other, just seems too offensive to the modern pluralistic mindset.
In a comment to a recent post about prayer, Hannah explained that when she prays she likes to think of God’s attributes: his awesome power, his goodness, his love, mercy, compassion, and so on. It is fitting to praise God in this fashion, and it does help us to understand him better. But if this is carried too far (and I do not intend to suggest at all that she carries it too far), we may eventually start to think of God in terms of these attributes. God cannot be reduced to an adjective list. He is a living being.
Tags: Prayer
In a recent post, I claimed that the only truly Christian prayer is the prayer of Christ. This idea is difficult to grasp, and its implications are not entirely obvious. Does this mean that I don’t have to pray? Does it mean that my own efforts are futile? If Jesus has already done it all, then what exactly is my role?
We tend to think of personal prayer as something we create by ourselves; it should just bubble up from within our souls. So we begin by composing a prayer to God. But we don’t hear anything back. We don’t feel much of anything. We begin to think, “Something is wrong. I guess I’m not praying hard enough. Gotta get more intense! Gotta get more sincere!” As we try to do better, we continue this process of self-evaluation. The focus turns inward. Our prayer becomes introspection, a conversation with the self and about the self.
Tags: Prayer
Recent Comments