Christian service

It’s sad, but true. If we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves and instead bite and devour one another, we will be consumed (Gal. 5:14-15). You have seen this in your relationships with family and friends. You have witnessed this between children fighting over a toy. You have observed this...
Adriaan Reland – A Scholar for God’s Glory In academic circles, Adriaan Reland is hailed as a remarkable Orientalist and linguist whose studies and writings have contributed to dispel many prejudiced views of his time. What most sources ignore, however, is his motivation. Born in 1676 in the small...
Ultimatums usually aren’t helpful. Especially if you’re engaged in work that draws heavily on one’s personality. When you attempt to take up a mantra or a method which doesn’t fit you, you should follow David’s example, and give Saul his armor back. Better to fight with what you know, than to die...
Augustine of Canterbury – A Reluctant Missionary Augustine of Canterbury, often known as “the apostle of the English,” would have never made it across the Channel if it hadn’t been for the insistent prompting of Pope Gregory I. The eighth century historian Bede tells us in fact that Augustine and...
Ambrose of Milan – The Reluctant Bishop Who Called Emperors to Task If you visit downtown Milan, Italy, besides viewing the most popular monuments, such as the Duomo and the Sforza Castle, you may want to walk a mile out of the way to explore an older church named after a fourth-century bishop,...
Who Needs the Church? “I’m a Christian, but I don’t need a church. Nature is where I find God.” Whatever the stated reasoning, those who avoid church attendance and membership often do so without understanding why believers need the Church and the Church needs them. Guest Terry Johnson has written...
Lactantius – An Original Writer Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius was born around the year 255 in North Africa. Quickly earning a reputation for his intellectual prowess, in 290 he was invited by Emperor Diocletian to serve as professor of Latin and rhetoric in Nicomedia of Bithynia (today’s...
“They’re trying to get me” is the catch phrase of the paranoid mind. The question it raises, is the identity of “they”. But the leading declaration of Psalm 129 is quite different. It is not a statement of fears but of memory: “Many time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say.” (1...
Zwingli: God’s Armed Prophet In his time, Huldrych Zwingli was a deeply polarizing figure. Though clearly a leader of the Swiss Reformation, contemporaries Martin Luther and John Calvin denied Zwingli's influence, due in large part to his position on the Lord's Supper. Unlike his more famous...
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke – Learning to Number His Days “One thing Christianity and we National Socialists have in common, and only one: we demand the whole man.” These words, pronounced by Roland Freisler, State Secretary of the Reich, at the time of the trial of Helmuth von Moltke, were...