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For the Church, Lent like Advent is a "powerful season" a season of waiting and preparing and therefore a time for sacrifice, repentance, and purification. But, in our hedonistic society of today these words seem to strike a rather discordant note. So, is it fair to ask : how do we speak today about sacrifice and how do we practice it ?? Lent lasts for 40 days - as many days as Jesus Christ spent in the desert before he took on his mission of salvation. 40 is a sacred number in the Bible : the Deluge lasted for 40...

February 19, 2015Thursday after Ash Wednesday    Reading 1 Dt 30:15-20 Moses said to the people:“Today I have set before youlife and prosperity, death and doom.If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,which I enjoin on you today,loving him, and walking in his ways,and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,you will live and grow numerous,and the LORD, your God,will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,I tell you now that you will certainly perish;you will...

Roman Catholic bishops released a draft document this week calling for the church to welcome gays, unmarried couples and people who have divorced. The document is proving to be highly controversial among conservative Catholics, and the official English translation already has had some of the welcoming tone revised out of it. But several public-opinion polls suggest that Catholics in many countries are ready to accept such change — more ready than members of many other religions.In the U.S, the General Social Survey, which is conducted by the research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, has been asking about divorce...

Have you ever wondered what God thinks about or what is on His mind? Well, the Psalms tell us that God is mindful of us. That means He is constantly thinking about you and me. What an amazing thought—the Creator of the universe always has something on His mind, and that something is YOU! So many people today think God is looking down on them, just waiting for them to mess up. They say things like, "If I walk into a church, the roof will cave in!" But nothing could be further from the truth! When God thinks about you,...

As one considers the values of Hollywood and American pop culture, it would be easy to conclude that no one is concerned all that much about morality. The dominant message is that people should live whatever life-style suits their personal preferences.  What is right for one person is not necessarily what is right for another. Or so it would seem.Just about the time you are convinced that Hollywood thinks morality is relative, a major entertainment figure steps forward and speaks out vigorously about a moral cause. Maybe it’s the environment. Or perhaps its racism. Or maybe the moral cause is...

Death for the Christian and the non-Christian alike is the terrible fall-out from the Fall. While Christians should grieve with hope (1Thess. 4:13), even we still grieve. When your non-Christian neighbor experiences a death, you can sympathize with the real horror of a life ended and a relationship severed. What’s more, in a culture where death is either downplayed and ignored or set in the realm of dignified personal choices, you may be the only one willing to acknowledge its awful and inevitable impact.  When a loved-one of a friend dies, words come hard. In the emotionally-charged aftermath of death, it’s tricky to know how...

One comment that Christian pastors sometimes hear from people they are counseling is that it would be easier for them to have a strong faith if they could see God doing the same kinds of miracles today as are recorded in the Bible. The unspoken assumption is that seeing is believing—that the people who lived in Jesus’ day found themselves more readily trusting Him because they could see His great works. Such comments show the need for a closer reading of Scripture, for there are many cases where seeing great miracles didn’t move observers to faith. For example, John 11...

THE COMPLACENCY of CHRISTIANS is the scandal of Christianity. Time is short, and eternity is long. The end of all things is at hand. Man has proved himself morally unfit to manage the world in which he has been placed by the kindness of the Almighty. He has jockeyed himself to the edge of the crater and cannot go back, and in terrible fear he is holding his breath against the awful moment when he will be plunged into the inferno. In the meantime, a company of people exist on the earth who claim to have the answer to all...

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.-Matt. 5:5 A fairly accurate description of the human race might be furnished one unacquainted with it by taking the Beatitudes, turning them wrong side out and saying, "Here is your human race." For the exact opposite of the virtues in the Beatitudes are the very qualities which distinguish human life and conduct. In the world of men we find nothing approaching the virtues of which Jesus spoke in the opening words of the famous Sermon on the Mount. Instead of poverty of spirit we find the rankest kind of pride;...

February 18, 2015Ash Wednesday    Reading 1 Jl 2:12-18 Even now, says the LORD,return to me with your whole heart,with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;Rend your hearts, not your garments,and return to the LORD, your God.For gracious and merciful is he,slow to anger, rich in kindness,and relenting in punishment.Perhaps he will again relentand leave behind him a blessing,Offerings and libationsfor the LORD, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion!proclaim a fast,call an assembly;Gather the people,notify the congregation;Assemble the elders,gather the childrenand the infants at the breast;Let the bridegroom quit his roomand the bride her chamber.Between the porch and the...

NEW YORK, February 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- As if it wasn’t controversial enough that a homosexual activist group will be marching under its own banner in the New York St. Patrick’s Day parade led by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the parade has refused a pro-life group’s request to participate. inclined, rather than advocates for sinful behaviour. The group, however, is an overt promoter of same-sex ‘marriage.’ The controversy heightened January 22, though, when the parade officially rejected a pro-life adoption advocacy group’s application to march this year. “It’s absolutely been a double-cross,” Dr. Elizabeth Rex, president of the Children...

VATICAN CITY — “African values are not on sale,” the new Chairman of Communications for the African bishops has said. But Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo, Nigeria, is convinced they are under threat from what Pope Francis has called an “ideological colonization” that is seeking to destroy the family. It's so bad, he says, that the United States has made clear it will not help Nigeria fight the Boko Haram terror group unless the country modify its laws regarding homosexuality, family planning and birth-control.

The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is one of great joy and great freedom. If Jesus radically changed things (and he did), why is it so hard to see a change? We can be dying inside. We can feel so guilty. We can sin so badly that we feel dirty all the time. We can be holding on “by our fingernails.” We can be bleeding from the wounds of life and from the wounds of other people. Yet when someone asks how we’re doing, what do we say? “Fine.” … We can all identify with the Prodigal Son...

Amber Hewson has a curious way of deciding where she's going to live next: looking at the gas gauge in her car. Every so often, when she's feeling fidgety, she'll just pack up her stuff, hit the open road and drive until the needle points at empty. That tells her when to coast into whatever anonymous burgh she's near and start the next chapter of her life. It's a pattern that's already propelled her across 14 states. [My note: See also: Another PluggedIn review, of "50 Shades of Grey," as well as a thread here dealing with the controversy over...

A prominent Southern Baptist leader who raised concerns last year after he advised that Christians should support the rights of other religions and also traveled to the Vatican for an interfaith conference on marriage is now stating that probate judges in Alabama should either follow the recent federal ruling in favor of “gay marriage” or resign. Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, made the statement recently to the Baptist Press when asked about his prediction on which way the U.S. Supreme Court might rule on the issue of same-sex “marriage.” He opined that...

The recently-released findings from an in-depth study of nearly 10,000 young adults show that Millennials who were homeschooled are less likely to leave the faith than individuals who attended private or public schools. Late last month, Generations with Vision and the National Home Education Research Institute published the results of their Gen2 Survey. The study explores the correlations between different educational methods and the spiritual decisions of Millennials who were raised in the church. “The purpose of the study is to examine these adults who were churched growing up and to understand the key influences which either encouraged or deterred...

Christians across the country are expressing concern as Focus on the Family’s “Plugged In” movie staff has released its review of the pornographic film “Fifty Shades of Grey”—especially that a critic at the professing Christian ministry watched the porn just to tell other Christians that they shouldn’t watch it. Plugged In said that it received an email from a follower who asked them not to review the film, and thus penned an blog post about the matter to explain its decision to watch and critique the material. “Fifty Shades of Grey is, without question, one of the most ‘popular’ elements...

February 17, 2015Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Gn 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10 When the LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth,and how no desire that his heart conceivedwas ever anything but evil,he regretted that he had made man on the earth,and his heart was grieved. So the LORD said:“I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created,and not only the men,but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air,for I am sorry that I made them.”But Noah found favor with the LORD. Then...

February 15, 2015: Islam claims to be the fastest growing religion in the world. That is true, but it’s mainly because Moslems are concentrated in countries with much higher birth rates (largely brought on by corruption and bad government). When you adjust for that and then look at just conversions you’ll note that Christianity and most other religions are converting Moslems at a much higher rate than the other way around...

"Praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven" (Col. 1:3-5). Faith, hope and love, the great trinity of Christian graces, were the foundation of the Christian character of the disciples at Colosse. From these all the graces of the Spirit unfolded in a manifold and beautiful variety and completeness. Nowhere have we a simpler, stronger and more attractive picture of an ideal Christian life. I. THEIR EVOLUTION It was out of darkness. "Who...