Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ - I think it is important for all of us, but especially for members and leaders of the World Reformed Fellowship, to be aware of this growing movement in support of “The Marriage Pledge.” This movement was sparked by sparked by the theological journal “First Things.”  I know personally many of those who are making this happen and I commend the pledge to all who are concerned about these matters.

Pentecostals remind us of the work of the Holy Spirit today. We may disagree about the prioritization and emphasis placed on specific spiritual gifts, but we don’t want to limit the Spirit’s work just to be merely the opening God's Word to us right now.

April 24 marked the one hundred year anniversary of the Armenian holocaust.  As World War I began, the Ottoman Empire based in Turkey was collapsing.  The Armenians were an ancient country in eastern Turkey that had been Christian since the beginning of our era.  Some of them may have been the original readers of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians in the late 40s AD.

Contextualization has to be a good idea. Use language that people can understand. Too many seminary types use seminary language while they preach, but they find that no one knows what they’re talking about, so they change (some never do). 

Recently a Muslim Imam in Kuwait made a startling admission.  Takmeel-e-Pakistan’s candid sermon was posted on the internet.  It is worth hearing and considering:

 1.         Introduction: Two extremes

In the introduction to his classic Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis wrote (1942):

What Hitler Can Teach Us:
Fundamentalists May Really Do What They Say They Will Do . . . Even If It Seems Totally Insane 
 A Guest lecture at the University of New York, Tirana, Albania 

Spreading Grace: Common Grace and Doctors Without Borders

One of the more distinctive doctrines of Reformed Christianity is that of common grace. Michael Horton defines it as “God’s bestowal of a variety of gifts and blessings on Christians and non-Christians alike, such as health, intelligence, friendship, vocation, family, government, art, science, etc. Common grace upholds fallen humanity, but it is not saving.”[1]

This will encourage you. You can be a Christian and still drive a car! and have electricity in the house, not just in the barn! Those Amish are committed to their faith, but they draw lines that the Bible just doesn’t draw.

Evangelicals should actively appropriate central themes from the Protestant Reformation that provide a unified structure for faith, life, and proclamation: the nuanced relation between law and gospel. A largely unified (but not woodenly identical) perspective can be learned from a comparison of Martin Luther (1483-1546) with John Calvin (1509-1564).

There is the church of Jesus Christ and then there is God’s kingdom. The church is about worshipping the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit; the kingdom is about fostering a world of righteousness and justice as God defines it. Many Christians see that as two very different things.

A few days before Easter a reporter from TV 57 in South Bend, Indiana, walked into Memories Pizza in Walkerton, stuck a microphone and a camera in the face of the owner, Crystal O’Connor, and asked her opinion about Indiana’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  The RFRA is supposed to shield religious minorities from being coerced to violate their consciences by doing something they believe is wrong to do.