9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job 2:9-10 (NIV)

   C. S. Lewis is known as one of the foremost Christian apologists of the twentieth century. He was a convinced atheist until he was 32, when, after lengthy conversations with his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, he became the “most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”1 Professor of Medieval Literature at Oxford, his gifts in speaking and writing gave him a widespread audience to speak of the Christian faith. (His death on November 22, 1963, was little noted at the time since it occurred on the same day as the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.)

   6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done […]

Pastor John Scripture References: Psalm 42:1-2; John 4:1-14; various other

  On his return to Geneva in September 1541, John Calvin, aided by a committee of pastors and city councilors, raced against time to produce his “Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances.”1 It was a momentous moment for Geneva: on November 20, 1541, they became law, revolutionizing the city’s social welfare and modeling it along biblical lines.2

Against her father’s wishes, a 12-year-old Canadian girl posted photos of herself on a dating service website. So he banned her from using the Internet. Then she had a fight with her stepmother. So he said she could not go on a school camping trip. But not accepting the punishment, the girl took her father to court—and won. A judged ruled that her father’s actions were excessive and forced him to let her go on the trip.1 Evangelical commentator Albert Mohler summarized the situation aptly: “This judge needs to be grounded and sent to her room … In posting pictures […]

 In 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “11,773 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes,” accounting for about one-third “of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.” Additionally, more than “1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.”

Pastor John Scripture Reference: Luke 24:3-35

  As one of the nineteenth century’s most prolific preachers and writers, Charles H. Spurgeon was pastor for 38 years at New Part Street Chapel, London, which later became the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Spurgeon had a gift for expressing clearly biblical truth. In one of his devotional writings on Psalm 119:53 (KJV), “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law,” the Christian is admonished to sorrow for the sins of others. For by such is a Christian brought back to his need for repentance and the pursuit of holiness.

 According to a contemporary labyrinth-walking guide, “There is no right way to walk a labyrinth. You only have to enter and follow the path.”1 So walkers traverse a winding trail that leads to the center of a maze-like design and back out again. Yet unlike a maze, wrong turns are not possible in a labyrinth, just a lazy spiral journey that takes all walkers to the same destination. The walk supposedly aligns the self and puts life in perspective. Though some medieval Christians used the labyrinth to symbolize the difficult path of Christianity, it has taken on a far more […]