On the heels of Holy Week, National Geographic presents The Story of God, an ambitious, expansive six-part series hosted by Morgan Freeman. This is an impressive interfaith study, with Freeman traveling to Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Guatemala, India and beyond in search of God, or at least humanity’s efforts to reach God. From the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to bathers on the Ganges, we follow Freeman and his guides to spiritual hot spot..
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A growing number of Americans believe religious liberty is on the decline and that the nation’s Christians face growing intolerance.
They also say American Christians complain too much.
Those are among the findings of a new study of views about religious liberty from LifeWay Research. Researchers surveyed 1,000 Americans in September 2013 and September 2015 and then compared the results.
Two-thirds (63 percent) say Christians face increasing intolerance, up..
Introspection is a skill that is undervalued these days. For the classical Christian philosophers, introspection was the ability to look within oneself, to meditate on one’s thoughts and feelings, and to separate one’s constructive and unconstructive reflections. To read their writings is immediately to encounter their impressive introspective powers. They had an astounding ability to conform their minds and behaviors to God’s will, down to the last cognitive detail. For many of them, introspection was a treasured skill that they had cultivated via years of practice.
Why did the classical Christian philosophers consider introspection to be so important? In part it was so that they could better love God. Introspection enabled them to identify their selfish and sinful cognitive habits. Sins like adultery, theft, and deception were for them the mere external and visible manifestations of an internal corruption. For ..
Describing their findings as “humbling,” researchers who set out to create a “minimal genome” have concluded that the basic elements of life are enormously complex and remain full of unsolved mysteries.
In an article titled “Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome,” a team of more than 20 scientists share the results of years of research on cellular genomes. The scientists, in an attempt to better understand the basic requirement for life, took a bacterial genome and stripped it down..
The Church does not have mere permission to celebrate the Resurrection, it has a mandate to proclaim the truth that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
The pattern of the Christian year is an exercise of the Church’s discipline. The annual celebrations of Christmas and Resurrection Day force the Church to ponder again the truths of Christ’s incarnation and resurrection.
Christians understand that every Lord’s Day is Resurrection Day, but this Sunday is the festival which draws all Christians face to face with the empty tomb and the truth of the resurrected Lord.
Resurrection Sunday is the central event in the church year–the climax of worship, expectation, and celebration. This celebration is also an acid test of the Church’s faithfulness and conviction.
The secular world has done its best to make a mess of Christmas, but it has largely ignored our celebration of t..
Zac Goldsmith has pledged that his “number one” task if elected Mayor of London is to make the capital safe from terror.
The Conservative candidate told Christian Today he is worried about the possibility of another attack.
He remembers clearly where he was on 7/7 – in hospital with a family member and had been up all night.
“That was the first time in my life where I've had a profound fear for this city. I've never felt anything like it before or since.”
Speaking on Good..
We should have seen this coming. After all it was a Disney / Pixar film that captured the mantra of the secular Progressives: “We scare because we care.”
Just as we describe in You Will Be Made to Care, Disney has joined the NFL and other compassionate bullies to try to shut down even stripped-down religious freedom protection in Georgia under the auspices of opposing discrimination. They are threatening to take their Marvel movie-making magic somewhere else if Georgia passes HB 757 to protect r..
It takes a majority.
It takes a majority of delegates to win the Republican nomination for President.
It is not complicated.
It is not new.
These rules have been basically the same since the founding of the Party. A majority of the delegates to the convention must vote for a candidate if he or she is to become the Party’s nominee.
Yet Trump and his fans are demanding the rules be changed to accommodate him.
They are demanding that the Establishment (whatever that is anymore) rip up the rules and..
Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him (Matthew 27:27-31).
The soldiers' assignment was simple. Take the Nazarene to the hill and kill him. But they wanted to have some fun first.
Strong, armed soldiers circled an exhausted, nearly dead, Galilean carpenter and beat up on him. The beating was commanded. The crucifixion was ordered. But the spitting?
Spitting isn't intended to hurt the body — it can't. Spitting is intended to degrade the soul, and it does.
Ever ..
![[Audio] How Pastors Can Preach about Religious Freedom](https://news.thelivinggod.online/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ec3cb00a2ff21c3e81584d04ee44408be273e5d11cb1104391f3_640_freedom-365x260.jpg)
My friend Dr. McKay Caston (who happens to also be my pastor) preached a sermon recently that demonstrates how pastors can and should preach about religious freedom.
It is fine example of speaking the truth in love and preparing a congregation for the rising tide of persecution in America.
McKay has agreed to let me post the audio here and share his sermon notes below. You can follow his blog here.
I encourage you to share them with pastors and church leaders and prayerfully encourage them to en..