We’re getting used to seeing scenes of medical personnel masked head to toe in protective garb to avoid infection from the sick they are tending. But our current health crisis is hitting home as it impacts our livelihoods. Just weeks ago, a record number of people were gainfully employed. Now, unless their job has been
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Why a Christian Perspective on Jordan Peterson is Necessary
I first came across Peterson when my students began wanting to do papers, presentations, and guided studies on him. As I learned more about him, I found that he was obviously contributing something, speaking into a vacuum that a lot of people were timid about. I found that he was challenging liberalism primarily by drawing
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Worship in Exile: On Video-Streamed Church Services
The world is in lockdown because of our public health crisis. Our main tool to fight this new, viral threat is social isolation. And so, we’re learning that the individualism we’ve pursued for so long isn’t all that great. Turns out, we need each other far more than we thought. God bless our pastors and
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What Does It Mean to Say, “Jesus Is Life?”
I was having a conversation with my Old Testament colleague Bill Arnold, and I asked him, “Is God ever called ‘life’ in the Old Testament?” His answer was telling: “Nothing comes to mind. But that may be because of frequency of usage, since the noun ‘life’ (ḥayyâ) is relatively rare, whereas the adjective ‘living’ (ḥay)
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Flattening the Curve: When Anxiety Goes Viral
We’re all holding our breath these days, waiting for the next shoe to drop in our national emergency. Officials from the White House down to local city halls and public works warn of a pending disaster of gargantuan proportions lurking just around the corner. Entire cities have gone on lockdown as the deadly, viral contagion
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Community in Plague Time
The wisdom of Solomon is time-tested, but these days it’s timely practical wisdom: “There is a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing” (Eccl 3:5). This advice is necessary to avoid spreading the COVID-19 virus. We aren’t designed to live in isolation. It goes against our grain. For Christians, it flies in
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A Prayer In Time of Suffering
Gracious Lord! Nothing can reconcile us to you better than to humbly and patiently learn obedience in the school of suffering. We learn by knowing that Jesus, though you are the Son of God, in the eternity of your nature you were pleased in your human nature to learn obedience by the things which you
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The Rule of Three
One of the most powerful productivity methods I have encountered is the rule of three. The rule of three says that each day you should focus on the three most important things you could do that day. These are three things that, if you do them, your day will be a success. It forces you
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The Ninth Word and Social Media
The Ninth Word is a fitting word for our mediated age. We’re spun by a whirlpool of rumor, innuendo, false accusation, slander, libel. People are tried and condemned by online lynch mobs. We like or share Tweets and Facebook posts even though we can’t possibly confirm their accuracy. Luther said that the Ninth Word requires
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Learning from the Faithful Meditations of Abraham Kuyper
Leaders shape a vision that inspires a following. An inspired following effects change—hopefully, change that is positive and blesses others. But how does a major leader for good sustain their vision? Clarify it? Expand it? Deepen it? How do they avoid becoming larger than the vision? Preoccupied with self more than with the cause? Compromising
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