Deus Misereatur

  I am grateful for Dr. James Bruce’s article, “ Of Atheists and Oaths ”. His development of the value of oaths, how they must be in the name of God, invoking God as witness and judge, is vital. In an era when oath-taking and vow-making has become increasingly meaningless, Bruce’s commentary and critique is helpful for Christ’s people. Oaths and vows are important. Don’t make them lightly. The purpose of my short article is not to criticize Dr. Bruce’s statement. Rather, since he was at our 50 th General Assembly and publicly made an abbreviated version of his comments during a specific debate, I thought I would launch off from his comments to the issue of that particular discussion. Quick Background Briefly, there was an Overture that came to our denomination (the Presbyterian Church in America) desiring to allow atheists to be able to testify in our church courts when there is a discipline case. This particular Overture was responded to “in the negative” by our Overtures C...

  A new tool can be a pleasure to use. When hitting Estate Sales or the Hardware store I’m often looking for new tools, and once I obtain one, I quickly race home, unwrap it and start playing with it and making new projects so I can use it. Christopher J. Gordon, senior minister at Escondido United Reformed Church in California and host of Abounding Grace Radio , has given folks a new tool. It’s a teeny pamphlet, all of 31 pages: “The New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality”. As a catechism, it is written in a question-answer format and has 41 of these installments. It’s handy, easy on the eyes, and filled with Scripture annotations. It’s ideal for older and younger adults and could be material for Christian education settings. The catechism runs the gamut of subjects regarding human sexuality. From creation and God’s original design to marriage and singleness, unwanted desires and self-made “identities,” marital abuse and oppression to pornography. Gordon has sensibly moved...

  O God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, Giver of all good gifts, we pray for your Church throughout the nations, to include First Nazarene of Bethany, Bethel, Calvary, and Canadian Hills Nazarene Church. Sustain us through the hard and happy times. Look upon our needs and provide all good things necessary for us to do the work you have called us to. Strangely warm our hearts and inspire in us greater and greater holiness. Kindly look on this congregation, Father, and give patience and joy to all the parents as they raise their children in your righteous ways. Aid the single that they may resist the pressures of our world and keep themselves chaste. Enrich our marriages so that they may be full of harmony, hope, and health. Strengthen the young adults to continue to follow Christ faithfully. May our children (younger and older) embrace the Christian faith we have been handing on to them with gusto and confidence. And may the fruit of the Spirit grow large in all of ...

  Some of you have asked for this passage I quoted last Sunday in the sermon. John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards added their own “Amen” to Augustine’s statement in their day. And it really is a special statement. I have been pondering it since last week. Augustine wrote a letter (Letter No. 118) to Dioscorus, a young Greek scholar. In that dispatch Augustine upholds humility as the condition and foundation for Christian living. He wrote: “To [Christ) ... I wish you to submit with complete devotion, and to construct no other way for yourself of grasping and holding the truth than the way constructed by Him who, as God, saw how faltering were our steps. This way is first humility, second humility, third humility, and however often you should ask me I would say the same, not because there are no other precepts to be explained, but if humility does not precede and accompany and follow every good work we do, and if it is not set before us to look upon, and beside us to lean upon, and ...

  O God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, who executes lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for it is in these you delight (Jeremiah 9:24). Glory to you, O Lord! We pray for your Church throughout the nations, this congregation, and New Bethel Church of God in Christ, Rainbow, Trinity, and Victory Temple. Fill your dearly loved people with courage and divine determination as we aim at seeking first your kingdom and your righteousness. Fill up all our lack; grant good health; guide our every step in godly ways, strengthening our desire to be faithful disciples of Christ. And grant us to treat our enemies and detractors with the same gracious kindness you treated us when we were your enemies. We call out to you those we know who need to repent of their sins and believe in Christ, as well as those who have strayed away and need to be restored, and those whose faith has been traumatized (…). Turn them from the father of lies and bring them to embrace ...

  An Infinite Fountain of Light: Jonathan Edwards for the Twenty-First Century George Marsden IVP Academic www.ivpress.com ISBN: 9781514006627; 176 pages; June 2023; $26.00   A few years ago, I was invited to a Christian school to do a class on Jonathan Edwards’s notable sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It was an intriguing class, interacting with teenagers who were trying to get their heads around Edwards’s perspective and position. After what I thought was a fairly successful class, I was saddened that the only thing these teens would likely remember Edwards for is that sermon. And then recently I have seen him receive another black eye from some, because he owned African slaves. Rarely do most people know that Edwards was a very compassionate man and preached with a view to the compassion of God. And rarely do most recall that he actually addressed the underlying racism in American slavery and laid some of the groundwork what would later turn sl...

  One crucial aspect of the Christian faith that makes Christianity Christianity, is the resurrection of men, women, girls and boys. Unlike so many other "afterlife" paradigms, Christianity uniquely touts that just as Jesus rose from the dead, body, blood, bones, toenails and hair, so his followers will also rise, body and soul, and permanently shake of mortality and misery. M. Jeff Brannon, professor of biblical studies and chair of the biblical studies and Christian ministries department at Belhaven University in Jackson Mississippi, has compiled a beautifully helpful manual to show how the biblical teaching on the resurrection is an essential and central doctrine in Scripture, and it is closely tied to all other creation and redemption themes of the Bible. His work is compiled in a 200-page paperback, "The Hope of Life After Death: A Biblical Theology of Resurrection". This volume is another installment in IVP Academic's "Essential Studies in Biblical Th...