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Why do Christian churches meet and worship on Sunday? After all, doesn’t the fourth commandment clearly say “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God?” So is Sunday worship just a Christian tradition? Did we not want to get mistaken for Jews? Or perhaps there was a church council that met to decide the day should be moved? Well no, none of those is the reason that Sunday became the day upon which Christians worship. Sunday worship was not fixed by a church council and as William Perkins points out, “The church, has no power to ordain a Sabbath.” The only...

May 4, 2015Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 14:5-18 There was an attempt in Iconiumby both the Gentiles and the Jews,together with their leaders,to attack and stone Paul and Barnabas.They realized it,and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbeand to the surrounding countryside,where they continued to proclaim the Good News. At Lystra there was a crippled man, lame from birth,who had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking, who looked intently at him,saw that he had the faith to be healed,and called out in a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your...

When some of us expressed fear of what we saw and heard about the protests against religious-rights laws, many people either saw no issue or condemned us for being alarmist or hate-filled Christians. It is time for well-meaning people to think this through. Hillary Clinton said last week culture and religious beliefs “have” to be changed to achieve women's rights. Is that just feel-good rhetoric, or does she really mean it? If so, what does it imply to say religious beliefs “have” to be changed? We don’t need to discuss theology. At its foundation this isn’t about theology at all,...

In this Easter Season, we continue to reflect on how the risen Lord Jesus minsters to us and supplies our needs. Last week we considered him as our shepherd. This week we learn how He is the vine and we the branches on the vine, wholly dependent on Him for everything. As we consider how he cares for us as his disciples, we need to rescue the word “care” from its rather sentimental modern sense. True care does not merely include more pleasant things such as giving food and shelter and other basic needs. Sometimes care involves difficult things necessary...

May 3, 2015Fifth Sunday of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 9:26-31 When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples,but they were all afraid of him,not believing that he was a disciple.Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the apostles,and he reported to them how he had seen the Lord,and that he had spoken to him,and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem,and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists,but they tried...

A CELEBRATED AMERICAN PREACHER once advanced the novel theory that the various denominations with their different doctrinal emphases served a useful purpose as gathering places for persons of similar temperaments. Christians, he suggested, tend to gravitate toward others of like mental types. Hence the denominations. Undoubtedly this is oversimplification carried to the point of error. There are too many persons of dissimilar temperaments in every denomination to support such a sweeping classification. Yet I believe that we have here an instance where an error may serve to point up a truth, the truth being that temperament has a great deal...

This day our hearts approve with gladness what our reason can never fully comprehend, even Thine eternity, O Ancient of Days. Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, mine Holy One? We worship Thee, the Father Everlasting, whose years shall have no end; and Thee, the love-begotten Son whose goings forth have been ever of old; we also acknowledge and adore Thee, Eternal Spirit, who before the foundation of the world didst live and love in coequal glory with the Father and the Son. Enlarge and purify the mansions of our souls that they may be fit habitations...

May 2, 2015Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church    Reading 1 Acts 13:44-52 On the following sabbathalmost the whole citygathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousyand with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said. Both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said,“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first,but since you reject itand condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life,we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us,I have made you a light to...

What happened on Pentecost? What are the implications of what took place on Pentecost for the church today? What expectations ought Christians to have for the work of the Holy Spirit in their own lives and the lives of others? Christians today continue to be divided, sometimes deeply, over the answers to these questions. During the 2015 B.B. Warfield Memorial Lecture Series we will examine the Bible for the sound and reliable answers it alone provides.

Paula White just got married to New Zealand rocker Jonathan Cain. He is perhaps best known for his days with the band Journey and Bad English. He sang the classic Journey ballad "Faithfully" and was part of over a dozen other Journey albums. "What a weekend—Blessed beyond description," she tweeted. White, a controversial pastor was divorced from her last husband, Randy White, in 2007. White married her first husband, Dean Knight, when she was a teenager. Together, they had a son named Bradley. She divorced Knight after she got saved. White stirred controversy in 2011 after she was appointed senior...

This dear brother taking it to the American leaders and America from Capital Hill from Almighty God's Word! Rev. 3:8!

In today’s post, I would like to briefly consider one of the most well-known and often-quoted verses in the New Testament. In fact, it is one of the most popular verses in American evangelical culture today. It has been printed on posters and inspirational wall art. A quick internet search reveals that you can buy key chains, rings, buttons, t-shirts, stickers, postcards, bracelets, handbags, and other Christianized trinkets with the words of this verse emblazoned, embroidered, or embossed upon them. This verse even gained some notoriety among college football fans a couple years ago when a championship quarterback sported the...

With seven words—“It is going to be an issue”—the U.S. government signaled to orthodox Christian colleges and universities that if they don’t drop their opposition to same-sex marriage they will lose their tax exempt status. Those words came yesterday when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, a case concerning whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s must guarantee the right for same-sex couples to marry. While the primary issue is whether gay marriage will be required in every state in the union, one exchange highlighted how the upcoming ruling could affect religious liberty. Justice Samuel Alito asked Solicitor General...

May 1, 2015Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 13:26-33 When Paul came to Antioch in Pisidia, he said in the synagogue:“My brothers, children of the family of Abraham,and those others among you who are God-fearing,to us this word of salvation has been sent. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him,and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophetsthat are read sabbath after sabbath. For even though they found no grounds for a death sentence,they asked Pilate to have him put to death,and when they had accomplished all that...

<p>KENNEWICK, Wash. — After recently shutting down the fundraising page for persecuted Christian bakers in Oregon, the popular crowdfunding site GoFundMe has now removed a page for a Christian florist who is at risk of losing her business, home and/or life savings for declining to use her services for a same-sex “wedding.”</p>

3. BASICALLY, THE COVENANT OF GRACE IS SIMPLY THE EXECUTION OF THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT BY CHRIST AS OUR SURETY. He undertook freely to carry out the will of God. He placed Himself under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, and were no more in a position to obtain life by their own fulfilment of the law. He came to do what Adam failed to do, and did it in virtue of a covenant agreement. And if this is so, and the covenant of grace is, as far as Christ is concerned, simply the carrying...

April 30, 2015Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter   Reading 1 Acts 13:13-25 From Paphos, Paul and his companionsset sail and arrived at Perga in Pamphylia. But John left them and returned to Jerusalem. They continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath they entered into the synagogue and took their seats. After the reading of the law and the prophets,the synagogue officials sent word to them,“My brothers, if one of you has a word of exhortationfor the people, please speak.” So Paul got up, motioned with his hand, and said,“Fellow children of Israel...

Full title: “It is Going to Be an Issue” — Supreme Court Argument on Same-Sex Marriage Puts Religious Liberty in the Crosshairs It is … it is going to be an issue.” With those words, spoken yesterday before the Supreme Court of the Unites States, the Solicitor General of the United States announced that religious liberty is directly threatened by the legalization of same-sex marriage. Donald Verrili, representing the Obama Administration as the nation’s highest court considered again the issue of same-sex marriage, was responding to a question from Justice Samuel Alito. His answer confirms with candor the threat we...

Two recent news stories caught our eye at CARA. The first reports on “declining membership” in the Catholic Church and the second on an “increase in ordinations” in the United States: “Even though the membership of the Catholic Church in the U.S. has been declining in the past two decades, the billow of Hispanic immigrants to the U.S. has sustained the church and helped keep parishes across the country open.” -Albuquerque Journal “Almost 600 Catholic men will be ordained priests for the U.S. in 2015, an increase of more than 100 from last year.”-The Washington TimesBoth of these stories contain...

April 29, 2015Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church    Reading 1 Acts 12:24—13:5a The word of God continued to spread and grow. After Barnabas and Saul completed their relief mission,they returned to Jerusalem,taking with them John, who is called Mark. Now there were in the Church at Antioch prophets and teachers:Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,Manaen who was a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saulfor the work to which I...