11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:11-12 (NIV)

Mr. Andrew Harned Scripture Reference: Colossians 1:13-20

When John Venn (1759-1813) arrived as pastor of the Clapham Church, he found that the funds to care for the poor were insufficient for the destitute in his parish. Venn, therefore, revived the Clapham Poor Society, which provided assistance subsidies to help the poor buy bread, coal, and potatoes at greatly reduced costs.

  Aristides of Athens was a second-century Christian author who wrote an apology addressed to the pagan Roman emperor Hadrian (or Antoninus Pius). The purpose of Aristides’s treatise was to defend the Christian faith against false accusations during the time when the Roman government persecuted Christians. Among other things, Aristides argues that the Christian moral code surpasses the highest ethical ideals of pagan philosophers, especially as manifested by the Church’s concern for the poor and socially vulnerable.

  Whenever there’s an archaeological discovery related to the Bible, conflicting interpretations by supposed experts can leave a believer’s head spinning. Take the recent discovery in Israel of a palace from the era of King David.1 An archaeologist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem says there’s “unequivocal evidence” that David and his descendants ruled at the site. But critics, including some committed believers, say it could have belonged to other kingdoms and that David’s palace likely would have been in Jerusalem some 18 miles to the northwest.2 Still others claim there is no archaeological evidence that David even existed. Similar confusion […]

Pastor Chris Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 16:18-21:23; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; Acts 3:22-23

  JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP) — Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court may change American culture through their opinions that overrule the legality of an opinion expressed by the majority of a state’s population.

  The life of the prominent atheistical philosopher, A. J. (“Freddie”) Ayer illustrates the power of education to shape the soul—for good or ill. When he was a young man his maternal grandfather gave him a copy of the Confessions. Unfortunately, it was not the famous spiritual autobiography of St. Augustine, but the enlightenment reflections of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau, rather than Augustine, would help mold the life of the infamous, atheist Oxford philosopher.

  27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. Philippians 1:27-28 (ESV)

 Barack Obama’s election to the American presidency would have seemed unimaginable in the second half of the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth century, but in those decades, the educational and economic foundations of black progress were being laid. The man, probably more than anyone else, responsible for this was Booker T. Washington, a former slave whose lifework was based on the conviction that the key to African-American advancement lay in the cultivation of the individual.1 And in this, he showed the example of his own character.