Deus Misereatur

  This simple 105-page paperback addresses the gender-confusion of our age at two significant levels. The first has to do with same-sex attractions, etc. The second has to do with how we work out our sex as males, and as females. The author, Gary Yagel, founder and director of Family Builders, addresses both issues from a biblical perspective and a complementarian frame of reference. The whole aim of the work is to aid parents and grandparents in communicating this biblical, complementarian framework to our teenagers, who are being hit hard by the current social rush toward casting off all boundaries regarding our sex and sexuality. Yagel makes several helpful observations that speak graciously to our moment, and especially to our children and grandchildren. The author is careful to encourage a healthy approach in communication, as well to motivate readers in being perceptive and listen well to the younger people in their lives. I appreciated the author's awareness of the Gnostic t...

  I’m a Presbyterian minister, which means I get to quote John Calvin with impunity. Therefore, I appreciate Calvin’s words in his introduction to the Psalms when he wrote: “this book [the Psalms] makes known to us this privilege, which is desirable above all others – that not only is there opened up to us familiar access to God, but also that we have permission and freedom granted us to lay open before him our infirmities, which we would be ashamed to confess before men” (p. xxxviii). That sentiment comes forth in a new, little 90-page softback “Psalms that Curse: A Brief Primer” penned by Sean McGowan, Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Tallahassee, Florida. It’s an easy-to-read manual, straightforward, devotional, and practical.   “Psalms that Curse” comes in fast, focused, and fastidious as it addresses several significant questions. It answers the question if the psalms that present “harsh language” and make us uncomfortable at times still have any rel...

  O God of our forebears, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Deborah, Hannah, Moses, David, Isaiah, Peter, Mary, Martha, Paul, Justin Martyr, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Cyril, Anselm, Aquinas, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Katarina, Calvin, Idelette, Bucer, and Cranmer: O God of our forebears, thank you for the good and godly heritage handed on to us, which we have received, and in which we rejoice!   We cry out to you, our Father, to heal our hurting and hammered world: especially Haiti, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Sudan, just to name a few. And we implore you, O God, to help our country and citizens during these tense and troubled days. Exalt that which is right and pull the plug on that which is wrong. Direct our leaders from the White house to the State house to the city house that they will follow your way and will, work toward the best interests of all, and preserve and protect the citizens and inhabitants so that there will be true liberty and justice for all – for the freeborn, the...