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Featured image for “Desperation, Persuasion, and Hope”
June 27, 2017
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Devotions

Desperation, Persuasion, and Hope

by Howard Schaap
…the habit of saying that God answers prayers through everyday things. For example, my earnest, mad prayers for my son on the other side of the world were answered by an old communist doctor who assured my wife and I, “This child is so well-vaccinated that there isn’t really much to worry about.” That’s an answer to prayer for which I was certainly grateful. However, as with every prayer we utter in the midst of grave illness, the real issue is, “…
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Featured image for “Or does it explode?”
September 29, 2014
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Essays

Or does it explode?

by Howard Schaap
…ssing and temptation of art. But this is where “Harlem,” the title and the community, comes into play. Hughes, the microphone of Harlem, the phonograph needle of Harlem, is there to record Harlem, to let the voices of Harlem come through. It’s “Harlem” that prevents the poet from making something beautiful of Harlem at the expense of making something true of Harlem. The last line of the poem, a line of italics, which Hughes often used to represent…
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Featured image for “Seeking Peace Amidst Dissension: How the Church Can be Both Diverse and One”
March 18, 2016
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Essays

Seeking Peace Amidst Dissension: How the Church Can be Both Diverse and One

by Monica Schaap Pierce
…he Bible differently? I think there is, as long as we commit to listening, openness, compassion, respect, hope, and prayer. The Spirit of diversity and unity goes with us in this endeavor—whether at work, home, or church—empowering us through our gifts and urging us toward the fulfillment of Christ’s prayer that we “all may be one.”6 David Brooks, New York Times, Feb. 9, 2016. â†© Acts 2:4-11 â†© Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 â†© Ephesians 4:4…
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Featured image for “2021 Top Articles”
December 29, 2021
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Essays

2021 Top Articles

by Ruth Clark
…from this past year?  And, what topics would you like iAt to explore this coming year? Comment with your thoughts and ideas. 1. The RCA: Where we Find Ourselves by Caleb Schut  Caleb Schut, an RCA pastor, reflects on the results of the recent General Synod in the Reformed Church of America (RCA). He writes, “There were weighty differences among us. But we also found ourselves together in prayer. We found ourselves praying together for the future…
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Featured image for “The Punch Line”
December 19, 2016
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Devotions

The Punch Line

by Ethan Brue
…his covenant I am making through you, the unsuspecting butt of this cosmic comedy. When very young children tell knock-knock jokes, they often improvise and tend toward excessive elaboration. Imaginations runs wild. The longer the punch line, the better. Whenever God comes to the world in childish form, imagination runs wild…stars, donkeys, angels, shepherds, wise men, you name it…everyone and everything is in the elaborate punch line. We all laug…
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Featured image for “Too Young to Marry?”
August 23, 2016
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Essays

Too Young to Marry?

by Leah Zuidema
…a relationship that gets me what I want and gets you what you want–without compromises, complications, distractions, or sacrifice. It’s an unrealistic view to bring to marriage, at any age. But even when those questions are asked with an eye toward mutual benefit for each spouse, they can be problematic. They can make an idol of “us” and “what we want” instead of considering how the marriage helps the couple to love the Lord wholeheartedly and lov…
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Featured image for “Christ, Consumerism, and Christmas”
December 2, 2015
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Spotlights

Christ, Consumerism, and Christmas

by Aaron Baart
…s? On one occasion, Jesus showed up at a scene where the religious and the commercial had assumed they could make perfectly compatible bedfellows. It didn’t go so well. In fact, this is the one story of the Bible where Jesus appears to become more angry than in any other. The fact that merchants were co-opting religious practices designed to cultivate intimacy between the worshiper and his father, and were using them for material gain, provoked a…
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Featured image for “Hillary Clinton and Progressive Civil Religion”
June 3, 2016
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Essays

Hillary Clinton and Progressive Civil Religion

by Kristin Kobes du Mez
…of her spiritual identity, and if one has ears to hear, it remains at the center of many of her political commitments today. What difference does it make if Hillary Clinton is a Christian? Electorally, overall favorability ratings tend to be linked to a candidate’s perceived religiosity, so it’s probably in her campaign’s interest to fight misconceptions about her lack of religiosity. But as history demonstrates, Christian belief can inspire widel…
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Featured image for “Making Peace with a God of Vengeance”
April 27, 2019
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Essays

Making Peace with a God of Vengeance

by Donald Roth
…olitical theories rooted in philosophers like Rene Girard, who saw the New Testament as completing the separation of the sacred from the violent that still plagues the Old Testament. Ultimately, there is a move among many Christians to embrace the mercy and grace reflected in restorative justice while rejecting or minimizing the importance of punishment and retributive notions of justice. However, if our response to the very real injustices of tod…
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Featured image for “The Return of Liturgy”
April 8, 2015
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Essays

The Return of Liturgy

by Howard Schaap
…ff. Modernity and the secular age (as Charles Taylor calls it) is just too complex and comprised of a heterogeneous moral/normative sources/fragments to be simply adopted or rejected. So, on this score, Anglicanism seems to me a better ‘platform’ or tradition from which to do the sifting.” Part of what interests me is my own reaction to all of this. It’s a shrug of the shoulders, something between the resignation of, “Bummer; we could’ve used him;…
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Featured image for “The Anchor of Our Lives”
January 22, 2017
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Devotions

The Anchor of Our Lives

by Amy DeGroot Bowling
…if God had forgotten them, these words brought much needed hope. Change is coming, change is here. God has not forgotten you. Deep darkness will become light. The hopelessness, despair they lived with will be transformed into hope. Winter will become spring. Isaiah’s original hearers lived under a long period of political oppression and exile. In parts of the world, people are living under similar circumstances of oppression and loss of a homeland…
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Featured image for “The Silence of Christ”
August 23, 2017
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Devotions

The Silence of Christ

by Kate Henreckson
…up to the feast, I am not going up to the feast, for my time has not fully come.” Christ knew that a time was coming when his identity would be revealed – when the curtain of the temple would be torn in two, when the stones would cry out, when an empty tomb would proclaim that truly, he was the son of God. But it was not yet. Even when Christ stands bound before Pilate, when he has a chance to proclaim his identity, he still is strangely silent. “…
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Featured image for “Reclaiming a Biblical View for Agriculture”
February 26, 2016
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Essays

Reclaiming a Biblical View for Agriculture

by Wayne Kobes
…ce. At worst, it views the Christian agriculturalist as a person who has become sidetracked from the significant, eternal quest and become occupied with what is ultimately irrelevant. To be sure, some Christians are involved in agriculture, a legitimate enterprise that puts food on the table – but the real meaning of life must be found elsewhere: in Christian worship and devotion, in what God is really concerned with. Deep down I think that most o…
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Featured image for “Citizenship, Identity, and Populism”
July 7, 2017
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Essays

Citizenship, Identity, and Populism

by Jeff Taylor
…han most liberal and progress-minded Americans are demonic, America-hating Communists. There are two main perspectives when it comes to immigration: melting pot (assimilation) vs. multiculturalism (diversity). It’s never been completely an either/or situation in the U.S. of A. Melting pot is the more traditional approach, but natural freedoms and constitutional rights provided space for those who spoke Dutch in the home, sang German at church, rea…
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Featured image for “Elusive Unity”
June 7, 2017
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Essays

Elusive Unity

by Jim Payton
…Holy Spirit §78) Listening to their counsel will serve us all better as we enter upcoming synods, with the potential the arguments we may bring or hear might have for dissension, bitterness, edginess, and division. May we remember that what unites us is not agreement on every point of teaching and practice, but a faith that – as Irenaeus of Lyons stressed already in the late second century – is rooted in the apostles’ teaching: “This is the summar…
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Featured image for “Be Not Afraid…To Vote for a Third-Party Conservative Candidate”
November 4, 2016
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Essays

Be Not Afraid…To Vote for a Third-Party Conservative Candidate

by Tom Clark
…ear for a third party candidate to break through, and maybe the major parties will get the message and nominate better candidates in the future. See analysis here.  â†© See analysis by the Tax Policy Center  â†© Watch this video here for example he spends several hours in a mostly African-American church in Atlanta answering their questions. â†© See 538’s forecast of Utah  â†©…
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Featured image for “Advent Traditions: What Are We Waiting For?”
December 8, 2018
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Essays

Advent Traditions: What Are We Waiting For?

by Kristin Kobes du Mez, April Fiet, Kayt Frisch
…anslation from Latin, Advent means “coming,” and throughout this season we enter in a time of waiting for the celebration of Christ’s coming into the world on Christmas Day. Typically, couples and families establish traditions in this time of waiting to build anticipation for Christmas. We asked our Editorial Board what traditions were important to them; April Fiet, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, and Kayt Frisch weigh in on how they keep Christ at the cent…
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Featured image for “Red Cups and Orphans”
November 13, 2015
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Essays

Red Cups and Orphans

by Liz Moss
…long-term, in-depth commitment by families, churches, and the entire faith community. If Christians are truly called to welcome in the orphaned and the parentless, then I believe the church — all of us, as a whole — must also answer the call along with these brave parents. Here are a few ways the church can answer this call: 1. Educate yourself. Learn about the long-term effects of trauma in children and the importance of healthy attachment. Some…
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Featured image for “Confessions of a Secret Gnostic: Part Two”
May 16, 2019
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Essays

Confessions of a Secret Gnostic: Part Two

by Chandra Crane
…eling secure in our status as beloved heirs. Being graciously ushered into communion with the glorious Trinity by our union with Christ, our bodies do not fade away, or become irrelevant! Rather, they have hope for new life in the here and now, as well as eternal, embodied life in the age to come. The Holy Spirit of our Lord Jesus does not merely hover in the sky. He inhabits his people. He condescends to tabernacle with us, and this is no mere al…
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Featured image for “Lotteries and Gambling vs. Investing”
January 22, 2016
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Essays

Lotteries and Gambling vs. Investing

by John Visser
…volved. In this case, individuals and organizations that buy shares of the company’s stock will share the risk that the company’s extensive research and development expenses may not pay off. In both of these cases the risk is unavoidable. The same is not true with gambling. Risks associated with gambling are created jointly by the gambler and the casino or lottery commission, and as such, are artificial and unnecessary. Second, an investment invol…
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Featured image for “The Price of Gopher Wood”
July 24, 2018
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Essays

The Price of Gopher Wood

by Calvin DeWitt
…time bring them to full recovery by letting them off the temporary ark to enter their natural habitats. How much less time-consuming and less expensive would it have been to build a smaller boat! Why not just a boat for Noah and family? Or, why not a boat for them and only the animals of use to them? The answer of course, is rooted in faithfulness. Noah’s act—Noah’s endangered species act—was not done out of self-interest or his personal survival…
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Featured image for “God Doesn’t Leave”
July 3, 2017
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Devotions

God Doesn’t Leave

by Katlyn DeVries
…s story would be silly, if it wasn’t about to take such a horrifying turn. Enter Jezebel, Ahab’s wife and the wicked queen of Israel, because of whom Ahab is considered the most unfaithful king of Israel to date. If the rest of 1 Kings is any indication, we can expect Jezebel’s presence in the story to make matters worse. Not surprisingly, Jezebel hatches a horrible plan that leads to the death of Naboth and frees up his property for confiscation…
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Featured image for “The Grace of Birdwatching”
June 15, 2017
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Devotions

The Grace of Birdwatching

by Erin Zoutendam
…FEE-bee or the chipping sparrow say chip-chip-chip-chip-chip-chip—it is to enter another world or learn another language. I am often nearly overwhelmed with gratitude for these moments that are an in-breaking of grace. You can’t summon a bird sighting; you can only receive it. The outdoors is no longer brown-earth-green-trees-blue-sky but rather brilliant orange orioles, tiny kinglets brimming with good cheer, and comical little fellows called bro…
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Featured image for “Topics Christians Should Discuss: Mass Incarceration (Part 1)”
January 24, 2023
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Essays

Topics Christians Should Discuss: Mass Incarceration (Part 1)

by Joya Schreurs
…ational morality through aggressive street policing, particularly in low-income communities. Denigrating welfare recipients and targeting users of crack cocaine, new policies crushed Black citizens already disadvantaged economically and geographically.7 Prisoners—both the fresh “street criminal” wave in the 1970s and 80s and today’s continuously racialized input—enter a system that profits from their inability to be liberated. Privatized prisons,…
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Featured image for “A Parent’s Guide to AAU Sports”
December 22, 2014
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Essays

A Parent’s Guide to AAU Sports

by Chad Hanson
…”). Every repetition that the child gets is one more rep to improve the outcome. The more your child can develop quality outcomes via different methods, the more adaptable they will be when they enter college, where the college coach will likely do things differently than previous coaches. While receiving coaching from multiple coaches, though, it is important to remember that each coach will likely want things done her way. If the school coach is…
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