Citizen Writers Fighting Censorship by Helping Americans Understand Issues Affecting the Republic.
The Pleasant Hill Baptist church sits out in the country. The fellowship hall is a sardine can.
It is an old room with drooping ceiling fans, paned windows, and carpet stains that predate the Vietnam War.
We’ll call her April. But that’s not her name. She sent me a letter which arrived in my mailbox on April 1. Hence, the pseudonym.
“I am 15 and I just had a baby…” the letter began.
I paused to get my reading glasses.
Life is the ultimate game: no instruction manual at birth, no guarantee how much time is on the clock, and plenty of opportunities to screw it up. The crazy part is that God gave us the cheat code anyway. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” We get a lifetime to figure that out, produce some good fruit, and use every redo grace gives us. But eventually, the clock hits zero.
At the end of Matthew 28, Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
After the 50th Wedding Anniversary celebrations for a Classmate and his wife in Florida, another Classmate and I went to church with them before we left for home. It was another Evangelical church on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ! So much so that they are planting another church about 15 minutes away. On their own. No help from any church hierarchy or authority.
For centuries, people have sensed that something is wrong with the world—that there are unseen forces pulling the strings behind governments, religions, wars, and ideologies.
There’s a very real chance that a few UICs may be sentenced under the Klu Klux Klan Act, for illegally aiding and abetting slavers, while railing about the injustice of white privilege.
This church is 115 years old. It’s small. Impossibly small, only able to fit 25 people—30 people if they are scrawny. The church is nestled in Appalachia, and looks like a postcard.
Day 2: Skills and The Code So many myths surround the origins and meanings behind “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It’s challenging to trace the birth and intended message in any older song, especially one that dates to 1780. You can conduct your own research, but I’m seeing more reference to the carol being French …
What I could use is in this 5th Generation War is 12 psychological gifts from the king of resilience, COL James N. “Nick” Rowe, U.S. Army Green Beret and survivor of five years as a Viet Cong prisoner of war in the swampy U Minh Forest of southernmost Vietnam.
“Dear Sean,” the email began. “I teach vacation Bible school… Last year we had three Latino children whose parents are undocumented immigrants… “Church leadership felt it best not to allow these children to attend VBS this year. It broke my heart, the kids don’t understand, I’m really struggling with this decision. What should I do?” …
I’d like to begin today with a couple of verses of Scripture. From Isaiah 30, “For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’ and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us …
Pope St. Pius V who served from January 1566 to his death, in May 1572 had it right saying, “All the evil in the world is due to lukewarm Catholics.”
“No God, no religion, can survive ridicule. No political church, no nobility, no royalty nor other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field and live.” Mark Twain The Romans understood this concept two thousand years ago, and used it to forge an empire. The incomparable Roman legions would conquer a region, …
“Cheap grace,” a term coined by theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, describes a superficial form of Christianity that avoids the difficult work of confronting societal wrongs.
I believe America is at a tipping point. Most Americans realize there is something deeply wrong with the nation we live in.
Early exposure to religious narratives, rituals, and values helps create a foundational understanding that influences one’s religious identity and outlook on life.
Given the work that I do, it grieves me to see so many professing Christians who are so ignorant of the days and times we’re living in. Most don’t know and don’t want to know what’s really going on in this world — or how Christ-followers are to respond to it all. Truly, those who …
Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
“So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
It’s been over five centuries since Martin Luther, the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation, stirred the theological pot by challenging certain doctrines within the Catholic Church.