“Often individuals with these experiences will be made to feel as though their confusion is due to some unforgivable sin. But the biblical story draws an important distinction between feelings and actions when it comes to sinfulness. Sin is indulging and acting upon a desire that is outside of the Creator’s design. … Unwanted feelings are a result of our weakness and brokenness, but can be turned over to God rather than acted upon.”
On an intuitive level, a child understands wrongdoing. For instance, he has momentarily hated his sister or a friend. So when he learns of murder, his mother can point him to 1 John 3 and explain to him how extreme hate can lead to murder. But there is not an obvious frame of reference for such a wicked thing as taking the life of a child, much less celebrating it.
Many Christians think what they are doing, what they have, and where they live determine their capacity to be satisfied. But we all have the same intrinsic capacity to experience an equal depth of enjoyment as God intended regardless of income level, geography, activity, or possessions. Our focus for enjoyment should be informed by our common design and set on God and his creation.
Abraham Kuyper sees a need and opportunity for a mutual exchange of strengths between the West and the East. He remarks that “we must give up the notion that we have everything to bring to the East and nothing to receive.”
If Christians propagate the biblical conception of sexiness, women will be elevated from the status of corrosive objectification to one of holistic admiration.
When speaking about the things of God, a limited vocabulary cannot haul the theological payload of the Bible with its trailer’s limited capacity.
Lewis saw democratic governments as eager to spread the benefits to all for that is the crux of democratic thinking: equality enjoyed by all. Hence, he saw a deadly combination in liberal democracies: technological advancements, moral nihilism, and power. This totalitarian state shrouded in democracy made possible by the degradation of education and the de-evolution of language caused by sixteenth-century philosophy.
Every toy has been created with a purpose in mind. As children play with toys, they are exposed to the philosophy that built the toy. A philosophy with views on morality, one’s origins, the purpose of life, the use of money, and self-identity.
In the Declaration of Independence, liberty and the pursuit of happiness “have come to define what it means to be human in modern America.” These “good things have come to be seen as ultimate things—as ends in and of themselves.” These two inalienable rights have become idols and are summed up in the word, freedom.
An approach to keep your church announcements from being unhelpful and harmful.
T.P. Scheiderer 