Always Reforming

The sad state of the modern Church, particularly in America, is well-documented.  One could create a seemingly-endless list of reasons for her disarray, and many of those reasons would be valid.  Human nature, a failure to cling to Scripture, material prosperity, and postmodernism, along with many other issues, can all claim some of the blame, but no discussion of the issue would be complete if we did not discuss the failures of the leadership of the Church.  This is a Biblical concept.  Throughout the Scriptures we see the leaders, both religious and secular, being held accountable for the spiritual decline of the people.  Again, a long list of issues plaguing the leadership in the Church, regardless of denomination, could be compiled, and behind those issues there could be found another list of underlying problems, but this is not the place, nor am I the person, to make such a list.  I want to narrow the discussion down and focus on the role that seminari...

Sam slowly opened his eyes.  The world was obscured by his fluttering eyelids and the blood streaming down his face.  Dazed, he tried to find his bearings, shock absorbing the pain he did not yet feel. What is that noise?   He cautiously looked to his left to see the profile of his best friend slumped over on the steering wheel, his weight causing the horn to blare. A crowd began to gather around the macabre scene, human nature finding the intrigue too difficult to resist.  Their hushed gasps harmonized with the blaring horn and the crunch of the glass beneath their feet. "Call 911!" Sam whispered, attempting to scream, but the sirens could already be heard approaching in the distance. "Hold on, Mark," he said, painfully stretching out his bloodied hand to touch the still figure.  Mark offered no response. Sam's heart began to race.  His senses began to return.  Reality swept over him like floodwaters bursting over a levee.  "Maaaaaaaa...

Net neutrality--social media's latest great debate.  Let's be honest...how many of us really knew all that much about net neutrality?  It became a hashtag and a meme and a battle-cry, but most of us were/are pretty uneducated about it.  My initial response, blindly following the outcries on the Internet, was that net neutrality was a good idea and should be upheld.  That was before I took the time to understand the issue.  Upon further review I have decided, still tentatively, that this recent abolition is a good thing.  The issue is complex, valid arguments existing on both sides, but here are three reasons why I'm glad they abolished net neutrality: 1) Less regulation is almost always a good idea .  Some regulations are necessary.  Murder, theft, etc. are all bad things and they should be illegal.  With regulations, however, less is often more.  Just adding laws to the books does nothing to guarantee that people will stop being jerks...

Warning!  This is another rant, which means you can expect conversational sentence structure, sarcasm, and my opinions.  Here it goes! We Americans are something, aren't we? Or maybe the entire world is messed up.  Yeah, it's probably that. Anyway, we Americans have the knack of taking any issue and making it political.  Example: abortion.  Killing unborn human children in the womb.  Appalling, right?  Beyond even consideration in a civilized culture that takes human rights seriously, right?  Right?!  Nope.  We have to debate it because I'm a Republican and you're a Democrat.  It's a political issue.  That means we have to come to a bipartisan answer that suits everyone, including people who tear fetuses limb from limb in the womb. We Americans suck, don't we? Well, here we go again, making a moral issue into a political one.  We have managed to make rape a political issue.  Your guy should resign because he...

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 says: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. One of the most pervasive themes in the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, is that Christians are and are...