Seventeen82

  Why Continue to Tell the Story of the Reformation?   ​ Our congregation in Wales will mark Reformation Day (October 31) with Protestants around the world  by remembering  the spark that lit the Reformation.  Increasingly   people  in Europe  are unaware of the Christian history that unfolded in  the  cities, towns, and villages  of these lands .  Perhaps this is increasing in North America as well.   There  is a perennial need to teach God’s people (especially our children) not only the faith once for all delivered to the saints, but also the story of how God  preserved and transmitted  that faith to us through the centuries.    In recent times, there is no lack of examples to show that the world does not have a story to tell; like the Canaanites of old ,  it has mere myths. As Christians, we are people rooted in the story of God’s works. Our identity and purpose in the modern world  ar...

Each year  around the  T hanksgiving table, we would write down a few things we were thankful for  on a paper feather  and  then use them to  decorate the turkey centerpiece. It was foundational  to the holiday of T hanksgiving  for me , but even more so, it cultivated a heart of thankfulness for  the rest of  my life.      As I have gotten older I have noticed that the months of November and December are quite ironic. We spend all of November giving thanks, then in December  (or even the day after T hanksgiving) we run to the store to get the best sale. It is a clear indication of the materialistic hearts of man and the cultu re we have created. Even our social media accounts  are inundated with advertisements that have been pinpoin ted to  our desires. Whether we like it or not,  we are a materialistic society, obsessively  focused on material things.  So how do we fight ag ainst this materi...

  The Trinity is a topic that is vital to the Christian faith and it is something that many theologians, pastors and laymen have spent the generations talking about. It is something that is familiar to all of those who have placed their faith in Christ and those that have been raised in the church. We’ve been taught since our Sunday School classes as a child that God is One in His essence and Three in His persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Something that is not always asked is so what does that mean for me that God is a Trinity? Often this doctrine gets tagged on because we know that it is something that we have to believe and we have to teach people. In fact, in a seminary class I had I remember saying that the Trinity was an essential doctrine to salvation and people looked at me like I had a lobster coming out of my ear. But the early church thought this way, surely the people at the Council of Nicaea did and the Athanasian Creed tells us that without knowledge of the Trinity...

Friends,  The current series of the  Adult Quarterly  Sunday School curriculum is taking us through the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. The lessons have been interesting and somewhat challenging for me because of my lack of familiarity with these books. But, learning more and more about the way God interacts with and preserves the Israelites has also been helpful for all the members of our adult class. We know that God works in our lives just as he did in those days, for He never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  The last two weeks, we've studied Deborah and Barak as well as Gideon, and in the next two weeks, we'll study Jephthah and Samson respectively. Their stories are among the best of the Old Testament. Deborah and Barak deliver Israel from Jabin, king of Canaan and his general Sisera. Gideon slays the Midianites in a most unusual battle. Jephthah rose from a scandalous backgrou...

Fellowship. It is a word that is common among Christians. Of course, it isn’t a word that is exclusive among believers. The English word itself, according to the Oxford Languages online dictionary, conveys a “friendly association, especially with people who share one's interests.” Generally, such a friendly association among those who share a common interest entails some type of social activity. It might be meeting up at sporting event to watch their team play or attending a concert of their favorite musical artist. People gather with one another at bars, restaurants, and homes for meals. A service project motivated out of a common concern may also bring people together as well. Whatever has bonded them together, such gatherings may rightly be regarded as a type of fellowship.    To be sure, there is common ground here when we begin to think of Christian fellowship. There is no question that believers share common interests and goals. Yet too often Christians can associate fel...

  To quote C. S. Lewis, “ The world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature. ” This suggests that a bridge  exists  between Christian   authors writing good literature  and providing Christian insight in that writing. In my opinion one of Lewis’ finest examples of that is in  The Silver Chair  as part of  T he   Chronicles of Narnia . I suspect that this book may be the least read  of any in   T he  Chronicles , but honestly it is my favorite. With this blogpost in mind, I reread  The Silver Chair  and once again did not come away disappointed. Although  the Bible  is never quoted in the book ,  my opinion is that  the underlying theme of the   book  is  the verses that immediately follow the  Shema , “ These words, which I am commanding you today,  shall be on your heart.   You shall teach them diligently to yo...