persecution
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“The early church didn’t have a Graham, a Finney, or a Moody. It didn’t have Promise Keepers, a Great Awakening, or user-friendly churches. Furthermore, it had no concise spiritual laws to share, no explosive method for talking to the unconverted. What it had seems quite paltry: it had unspectacular people with a hodgepodge of methods,
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“You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive,’ or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity.’ [But] In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at
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It used to be that Hippies and Beatniks (remember them?) were America’s counter-culture… “As Christians [in America], our challenge is to go back as close as we can to the Gospel and truly be the church. Increasingly, we’re likely to be a counter-culture. As that happens, we will be the last great defenders of reason, truth and
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(I rarely editorialize, so be forewarned. Another, more encouraging post is on its way soon…) “What is truth?”, Pontius Pilate once quipped at the words of Jesus, just before he sentenced Him to death. If you ask the same question to UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the reply would be something
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The world is in trouble, but fret not—the church isn’t. The pressure is on, but it’s been on before. The world even tried to kill Jesus, and look what happened… “Nothing can extinguish it. To the end of time it shall be there and shall always manifest itself, and men must never lose heart because of that.
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Since you’re reading this, it means you’re on the internet, which means you’re up-to-date on the latest headlines. Our senses are assaulted as fear and uncertainty rage from post to tweet. We roar but we’re quite helpless to control the bedlam. But wait… “Things are not as they seem. Evil, though widespread, is not winning. Faithfulness, though costly, is not futile. Affliction, though
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Following Jesus? Wounds are assured. So is glory. Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot or side or hand? I hear thee sung as mighty in the land, I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star; Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound? Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent. Leaned
Jay McCarl 