Barth’s chapter on the foundation of the Christian life (Church DogmaticsIV/4) begins with a discussion entitled, “Baptism with the Holy Spirit” in which Barth addresses the origin, beginning and initiation of human faithfulness which replies and corresponds to the faithfulness of God. How is...
my church taught me how to behave, that God’s word (from the American perspective) is unfailing, appearance is everything, and questioning is divisive. On the other hand, I always had a deep empathy for people. Their stories and pain moved me. The more I understood people, the...
First, there is no place in all of Scripture where you will find justification for deacons running a church. The fact that so many do is a sad testament to how poorly the Word of God has been taught in so many of our congregations. If you really want to get specific, there are no ...
“You’re out in the countryside, you’re looking over the trees and you see the church steeple.” We’ll begin with a global view, the 30,000 foot look at Phyrexia as if we’re incoming from the outside. We’re fortunate enough to have a literal blueprint as to what we see in ...
Both bouquets came home with me late tonight, leftover table decorations from a women’s dinner at my church—the first event I’d ever been assigned the task of organizing. For most of the week, I battled nerves and doubt. Why in the world did anyone think I would be the right perso...
“The business of the Elders of this Church (Jesus, their elder brother, being at their head), is to gather up all the truths in the world pertaining to life and salvation, to the Gospel we preach, to mechanisms of every kind, to the sciences, and to philosophy, wherever they may be...
Growing up, every Sunday in church we would sing the psalms. The congregation would chant one verse back and forth. It was mesmerizing; the melody haunting. The words fascinated me because they were emotional, longing, pleading, a kind of language I did not hear often in the understated mi...
we can approach Him and, even greater, He can come be with us. With a promise, that it is forever and every gathering of His church, of likeminded individuals with relationships with Him, children of God who talk to Him, is to see Him among us. Aware that the life of His presence...
Recently, a group of Protestant and Anglican church leaders met to discuss Christianity’s role in slavery. The Washington Times covered the event with this story:‘Churches urged to acknowledge role in racism: Panel holds up mirror to American Christians.’ Balderdash! What a colossal waste of ...
This is my favorite luxury gift for gardeners. There are several sets of these bells of varying sizes across my garden. The 65″ black bells hang from a tree in the back garden. My mother refers to them as the church bells(the garden is our church). There’s nothing more calming than...