Results containing Valid ACCESS-DEF Exam Pass4sure 🍤 ACCESS-DEF Passleader Review 🍱 New ACCESS-DEF Test Vce Free 👊 Open “ www.pdfvce.com ” enter ▶ ACCESS-DEF ◀ and obtain a free download 🔉Test ACCESS-DEF Sample Online

October 27, 2014
 / 

Employment Division v. Smith (1990)

by
…in that state. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two men were fired after a drug test showed that they had ingested peyote. When the two men filed for unemployment, Oregon denied their benefits on the grounds that they had been dismissed for work-related misconduct. The men alleged that this decision was unlawful, since the men had been fired for ingesting peyote as part of a religious exercise. The Supreme Court, in an opinion authored by Justice Anton…
Read More
Featured image for “Caring for Someone with a Mental Illness”
April 16, 2015
 / 
Essays

Caring for Someone with a Mental Illness

by Shirley Matheis
…esult in other medical illnesses. The causes for mental illnesses are very complex–often a combination of genetics, biology, and life experiences–most of which are beyond one’s control. It’s no more reasonable to blame a person for being depressed than it is to blame her for having a stroke or ovarian cancer. Just as we say, “She HAS cancer,” instead of “She’s cancerous,” it’s preferable to say, “He HAS bipolar disorder,” rather than saying “He’s…
Read More
Featured image for “Teacher as Servant”
August 5, 2015
 / 
Essays

Teacher as Servant

by Laura Stauffer
…ent, cheerleader, counselor, and the list could go on and on. Standardized test scores seems to dominate education, but thankfully many teachers are investing more into our students to help them become caring human beings who can make a positive impact in our world. Looking back at my time studying at Northwestern, I realize now that all teachers are servants. Sharing the love of Christ daily and in simple ways is so important– not only for today’…
Read More
Featured image for “The “Power” of Miracles”
June 28, 2016
 / 
Devotions

The “Power” of Miracles

by Erik Hoekstra
…to me several years ago when my wife was diagnosed with a rare form of glaucoma—normally a disease for the elderly, but for Barb it happened in her early 40’s. A dear friend of ours, just prior to one of our trips to see the specialist at the University of Iowa, assured us that they were, “Praying for a miracle.” It was my wife’s immediate response which makes me think of this story from Luke—“I’ve already got my miracle—I live 5 hours from the wo…
Read More
Featured image for “Grow Roots”
October 26, 2017
 / 
Devotions

Grow Roots

by Kristi Kiel
…at the wicked are thriving: another mass shooting, another nuclear weapons test, another celebrity accused of sexual assault, another corporation charged with fleecing the public, another rally of white supremacists. And in local news: another shooting, another armed robbery, another rape. Every day. Who prospers? Who withers up and blows away like chaff? Sometimes it seems like the wicked are thriving and the righteous are withering, and then I j…
Read More
Featured image for “Growing Trust”
September 27, 2018
 / 
Essays

Growing Trust

by Heidi De Jonge
…revealing of the Holy Spirit. No one can know themselves or another person completely. Together, we must pray the prayer of Psalm 139:23-24: Search us, God, and know our hearts. Test us, and know our anxious thoughts. See if there are any offensive ways in us, and lead us in the way everlasting. Only God sees all the parts of us. God, in God’s way, lovingly shines light in the shadowy places in our hearts that need God’s knowing, and then leads us…
Read More
October 27, 2014
 / 

Loving v. Virginia (1967)

by
…s would be suspended for 25 years so long as they left Virginia and didn’t come back. A unanimous Supreme Court overturned the Virginia law, finding that it offended basic precedent running back to at least the passage of the 14th Amendment. The court rejected the idea that “the color of a person’s skin the test of whether his conduct is a criminal offense” and found “patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discri…
Read More
Featured image for “Being His People”
June 3, 2017
 / 
Devotions

Being His People

by Tori Mann
…e given in Exodus 20, Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” So, here are two motivations for obedience: fear and thankfulness. These motivations come from a state of heart. Beyond these, the commandments themselves show that God wants more than external obedience. “Do not covet” is a command explicitly for the heart, clueing us in that all the comm…
Read More
Featured image for “Experiencing Joy Through Confession”
March 5, 2017
 / 
Devotions

Experiencing Joy Through Confession

by Eric Forseth
…King David did, and we are grateful your joy will come in the morning, because your promises are new every day. Patterson D. & R. Kelley, Old Testament Commentary (B and H Publishing, 2011), p. 911.  â†©…
Read More
Featured image for “Haunted by the Father: The Poetry of Li-Young Lee”
April 20, 2017
 / 
Essays

Haunted by the Father: The Poetry of Li-Young Lee

by Howard Schaap
…s slippery and imprecise. Then again, combination words and images give us access to Lee’s poems in the sweet land of memory. The poem “Eating Alone” is a case in point.1 The poem opens with clean, quicksilver imagery. I’ve pulled the last of the year’s young onions. The garden is bare now. The ground is cold, brown and old. What is left of the day flames in the maples at the corner of my eye. I turn, a cardinal vanishes. By the cellar door, I was…
Read More
Featured image for “The Feeding of the Five Thousand”
August 8, 2017
 / 
Devotions

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

by Wesley Joseph
…y he is what they need. Jesus’ prayers, his time with God, fuel his life of compassion and blessing. Jesus doesn’t come to reveal a religious way that needs high hedges on either side to block out the view of the world. Instead, Jesus lives a life marked by knowing God’s compassion for him and sharing that compassion with others. Our world is a tough place. It’s easy to withdraw to “spend time with Jesus.” It’s easy to get distracted by meeting th…
Read More
Featured image for “Estate Planning: Psalms and Hymns for a Lifetime”
May 10, 2018
 / 
Essays

Estate Planning: Psalms and Hymns for a Lifetime

by Karen A. DeMol
…Christian worship: the longing and sense of mystery of the middle ages (“O Come, O Come Immanuel”), the sturdy faith statements of the Protestant Reformation (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”), the devotion of the 18th century revival in England (the Wesleys’ “O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”) and the United States (Isaac Watts’ “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”). The words of hymn-writers from past times and other places provide us with rich con…
Read More
Featured image for “The Third Thing”
May 28, 2019
 / 
Culture

The Third Thing

by Caleb Schut
…own context, and that their music would honor the tradition from which it comes while not being bound by the confines of culture.” The artistry of the music in this album tells the complex story of how the gospel is shaping our church in this particular moment. We hope that the songs might name something to which your church can relate. We hope that it might encourage other churches to think about how their worship life is telling the story of Go…
Read More
Featured image for “Prepared for What: What are Pastors For?”
May 11, 2023
 / 
Essays

Prepared for What: What are Pastors For?

by Rylan Brue
…States—facing declining attendance and financial pinches—are struggling to come up with a coherent answer as to what pastors are for as well. Curriculums have been shortened, language requirements lessened, and additional formational aspects added. The training is less theological-vocational as much as it is vocational-theological.1 The guiding axiom appears to be that shepherding is best taught in the pasture and not in the classroom. While this…
Read More
May 22, 2023
 / 

Reformed: What is Reformed?

by Ruth Clark
…others and sisters are dead, they still speak as guides who have stood the test of time. To refuse their testimony is to quench the Spirit. We seek to continue on in the same way, affirming the sovereignty of God over every sphere of life, the priority of grace, and the theological significance of covenant for understanding Scripture. 2. How does it live with other Christian traditions? Even as we are planted in the Reformed tradition, we acknowle…
Read More
Featured image for “Mind-Full Love”
February 3, 2016
 / 
Essays

Mind-Full Love

by Bruce Vermeer
…ocus on God. With this in place and functioning optimally, we discover the freedom to fill our minds with all manner of God-honoring thoughts and feelings. Maintaining this focus, however, is only the beginning. Just as regular exercise is necessary to maintain physical fitness, so regular exercise of the mind is necessary to maintain cognitive fitness. What might such exercise be? It can be anything that engages the mind — anything that facilitat…
Read More
Featured image for “Listening with Love: Recovering the Art of Listening Well”
November 17, 2020
 / 
Culture

Listening with Love: Recovering the Art of Listening Well

by Erin Olson
…tudies conducted to understand the relationship between listening and good communication found that when communication is good, the brain waves of the listener and the communicator often begin to sync. Using an fMRI, neuroscientist Uri Hasson found that when someone was focused on listening to another research participant describing their favorite show, the two brain wave patterns became almost identical. In a similar study, researchers mapped the…
Read More
Featured image for “Voting in the United States”
October 31, 2016
 / 
Essays

Voting in the United States

by JP Sundararajan
…my relative had admonished me, I had done my best to thrive here. I had accomplished, and overcome, and risen up. In the moment, I was particularly exhilarated by the thought that I would now be able to stand together with my family in the immigration line every time we entered the USA. This simple thought pointed to the reality of my success here, and the rightness of my new citizenship. And here we are, a nation that is torn apart and worried a…
Read More
Featured image for “How Does a Teacher Use Technology Appropriately?”
September 12, 2016
 / 
Essays

How Does a Teacher Use Technology Appropriately?

by Joe'l Vander Waal
…umerism to become as widespread as it is in our times.”5 When technology becomes the center of our lives–often without us even knowing it–we are not glorifying God and enjoying him forever. We are distracted and will miss many of the blessings God has in store for us. Finally, when we use technology to focus on continually building knowledge and power so we can become all-knowing, God-like masters of the universe, we are in danger of living in wha…
Read More
Featured image for “Ascent”
March 10, 2017
 / 
Devotions

Ascent

by Shelbi Gesch
…across the valley. I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Ps. 121: 1-2 Burned into my memory, that scene of the Yosemite valley stretched out in front of me so much like a living postcard that it hardly seemed real is what I picture when I read the opening to Psalm 121: “I lift up my eyes to the hills.” Psalm 121 is a “song of ascents.” The Message calls it a “…
Read More
Featured image for “A Letter to Teachers”
August 17, 2015
 / 
Devotions

A Letter to Teachers

by Dave Mulder
…nk. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. School can be a dark place for students, and even for teachers. Be light in the darkness! Remember: you matter. You make a difference. You are fulfilling your calling! Be Jesus’s hands and feet, and serve where you are called!2 The basis of this encouragement comes from Romans 12. â†© This letter was first shared as a blessing to the…
Read More
Featured image for “Ascribe to the Lord Glory”
June 14, 2017
 / 
Devotions

Ascribe to the Lord Glory

by Kristen Uroda
…hroned over the cosmos—not us. Humility allows us to see the world as God-centered, not human-centered, and creation care is one of the many ways we can “ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.” If humility encourages a desire to love, worship, and honor God in all that we do, it should also nurture a reverence towards all that He has created. But when it comes to respecting what God has created and the power of nature, frequently, that’s not…
Read More
Featured image for “Fear is a Liar”
August 23, 2018
 / 
Devotions

Fear is a Liar

by Tara Boer
…ght, or freeze response; and our good sound thinking (cortex) is usually inaccessible. We become flooded with emotion, preoccupied with survival, and fail (at least temporarily) to give our Creator a chance to speak truth to us. Zach Williams sings a song called “Fear is a Liar.” In the chorus he says: Fear, he is a liar He will take your breath Stop you in your steps Fear he is a liar He will rob your rest Steal your happiness Cast your fear in t…
Read More
Featured image for “Returning to the Shore of the Stream”
October 26, 2017
 / 
Devotions

Returning to the Shore of the Stream

by Kristi Kiel
…at the wicked are thriving: another mass shooting, another nuclear weapons test, another celebrity accused of sexual assault, another corporation charged with fleecing the public, another rally of white supremacists. And in local news: another shooting, another armed robbery, another rape. Every day. Who prospers? Who withers up and blows away like chaff? Sometimes it seems like the wicked are thriving and the righteous are withering, and then I j…
Read More
Featured image for “Doing Business on Facebook”
July 8, 2016
 / 
Essays

Doing Business on Facebook

by Hiroshi Yamada
…ou might be having a hard time choosing a major, some might be not the greatest test-taker and so on. For those of you, I know how horrifying it can be to think about the future when you are not exactly sure what you are doing with your life. Because you can’t foresee anything. Some assurance would be helpful but there are times in everybody’s life when that’s even a lot to ask for. So what did I do? I worked. I knew I didn’t have any skills nor k…
Read More
The blog.