We hate God, indeed, much more than we love ourselves. For we knowingly endanger our immortal souls; every day and every night we risk death and hell itself rather than come close to God and abide in secret prayer. This is the spiritual suicide that we could not have believed possible had we not discovered … Continue reading No time to pray?
Christianity
The baptism of the Holy Spirit
The Bible speaks of three types of baptism: the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of believers by water and the baptism of suffering. Of the three, the most important is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as it is a precondition for the other two. There is evidence of this Holy Spirit baptism … Continue reading The baptism of the Holy Spirit
Is Christianity a subculture or a counterculture?
Subculture, a cultural group within a larger or predominant culture but distinguished from it by factors such as class, ethnic background, religion, or residence, unified by shared beliefs or interests which may be at variance with those of the larger culture. A group within a culture, distinguished from it by features of custom, conduct, etc. … Continue reading Is Christianity a subculture or a counterculture?
Unreached peoples
Unreached peoples! How can it be that there are still people groups in our modern world who have never heard about the Saviour, who do not have even a portion of the Bible in their language? Mission and Bible translation and distribution agencies tell us with considerable urgency that many such groups still remain on … Continue reading Unreached peoples
Charles de Gaulle and Christian apologetics
Why do I think that talking about Charles de Gaulle will help us understand the purpose of Christian apologetics? Follow me as I try to explain. The First World War was mostly fought on French soil, meaning that the people of France bore the greatest share of the war’s death, destruction and despair. After that … Continue reading Charles de Gaulle and Christian apologetics
What does the Bible mean to you?
In the 2011 census, 67% of Canadians identified themselves as Christians. A statistic that is somewhat older and probably outdated says that 25% of Canadians attend church once a week. The latest survey gives a glimpse of the rot at the base of our Christianity: 5% of Canadians read the Bible daily, 11% once a … Continue reading What does the Bible mean to you?
Broken paradigms
Sixty years ago, when I was twelve years old, I did not know any child my age who had not had the same father and a mother from the time they were born. One neighbour boy was being raised by his grandmother; there was a highly publicized fund raisng effort every year for the orphange in … Continue reading Broken paradigms
The great and terrible God
In order to reduce Christianity to moralistic, therapeutic deism, we must reduce God to a warm fuzzy, namby-pamby therapist whose only desire is to help us find relief from the emotional and existential complexes that befuddle our lives. That is not the way that the Bible describes Him. Nehemiah twice speaks of God as being … Continue reading The great and terrible God
Bees in the wall
A few years ago we shared a house with a colony of bees. We weren’t aware of their presence when we moved in. We knew the house from visiting the previous tenants, who had never mentioned the bees. Perhaps they moved in during the few months the house was unoccupied. They made us nervous at … Continue reading Bees in the wall
Life isn’t fair
These are real people that I’m going to write about, but I’m not going to use their real names. Elsie and Elizabeth were already quite elderly when we knew them; the story of their earlier life was told to us by others. They were sisters, born in pioneer days on a prairie farm and grew … Continue reading Life isn’t fair
