Believers today are troubled – perhaps frustrated would be a better word – by the divisions among Christians. It was certainly never God’s plan for there to be these kinds of divisions (“there should be no schism in the body” 1 Corinthians 12:25). Yet schisms have been part of Christian history since shortly after the beginning. … Continue reading The path to Christian unity
new birth
Remedy for the Indian problem
Starting in 1701, the government made treaties with the Indians living in Canada. The treaties were rather open-ended arrangements, promising schooling and health care, giving the Indians parcels of land for their exclusive use, but not limiting their right to hunt, fish, and trap wherever they wanted. Left to their own devices, the Indians would … Continue reading Remedy for the Indian problem
What is our heritage?
One day, about twenty-five years ago, my wife and I were visiting in the home of an Old Order Amish couple. The husband was not ordained at the time, but is now the bishop of his Old Order Amish community. He is a fine man with many admirable qualities, kind, warmhearted, industrious, knowledgeable about many … Continue reading What is our heritage?
Verla’s first prayer
Verla didn’t know what to think when a group of Mennonites came to sing for her husband. Neither did they for that matter; they did not know the people in this house. However, someone had suggested they sing for this dying man and so they did. Verla and the children stayed in another room until … Continue reading Verla’s first prayer
The inconvenient Jesus
Jesus was the enemy of formalism and legalism, the one who castigated the religious leaders of His day for their hypocrisy. He was the friend of the poor, the oppressed, the outcasts and the sinners. We like to believe that no matter what others may think of us, Jesus is our unconditional friend. That isn’t … Continue reading The inconvenient Jesus
Walking in the light
There is a line that is crossed when we come to the Lord. That line is the border between darkness and light, unbelief and faith, death and life. Glimmers of light and faith from the realm of life have helped us find the way to this line, but the new birth takes us across the … Continue reading Walking in the light
Getting along with difficult people
Go into any bookstore, secular or Christian, mortar and bricks or online, and you will find at least a couple book titles that offer to teach you how to get along with difficult people. There is a management training organization which holds seminars across the country, year after year, to teach managers how to deal … Continue reading Getting along with difficult people
Conversion
In recent years we have been hearing a teaching that goes something like this: the new birth can happen in an instant, but conversion is the work of a lifetime. This bizarre statement has left me puzzled about how one can reconcile it with the Scriptures. In Acts 15:3, we are told that as Paul … Continue reading Conversion
Anabaptism is not a warm fuzzy experience
Anabaptism is about having a relationship with Jesus: a relationship that has a beginning but no end. We cannot simply grow into this relationship, not knowing just how or when it began. We may have had warm, fuzzy feelings about Jesus when we were little children, but we lacked the maturity then to make a … Continue reading Anabaptism is not a warm fuzzy experience
Anabaptism is not a lifestyle
The bishop got up to preach one Sunday morning and proclaimed to us that when a person wore plain clothes, that was proof that he or she was born again. An unconverted person could not get himself to wear such clothes. By “plain clothes” he meant the form of clothes that was mandated in his … Continue reading Anabaptism is not a lifestyle
Flatlander Faith 