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Daily devotional

More of Reformed Perspective!

News

Saturday Selections – August 17, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles...

The wrong folk think God, the Bible, and Christianity are relevant in the political sphere

After Trump was shot, a picture circulated showing Christ with a bandage on his ear – they were equating Trump with the Son of God, and that wasn't the first time either! On the Left, California governor Gavin Newsom's campaign paid for billboards to run in Mississippi that read "Need an abortion? California is ready to help" and underneath were the words from Mark 12:31: "Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these."

In the clip below you'll see 50 preachers who are taking their talking points from the Kamala Harris campaign, preaching to their congregations that they need to support one of the most pro-abortion candidates ever.

This isn't a reason to keep religion out of politics. It is a reason for God's people to speak up more, lest we abandon the public square to blasphemous pseudo-Christians.

How long pets live

Parents, if your kids are asking you for a giant tortoise, just say no! They might not eat all that much, and be easy to keep up with, but getting one for your family is a commitment that could last 300 years!

To find a pet that won't outlast your children's children, click on the link above for a very helpful chart.

Conspiracy fact: there really is a brilliant malevolent force working behind the scenes

Peter Mead writes on how Christians are "inclined to bury our heads in the sand regarding evil in this world." We'll affirm Satan is real but won't acknowledge his work "in almost every layer of human influence and authority."

And the problem with overlooking our spiritual adversary is that we're liable to miss the spiritual nature of the battle we're in – it's all about God's glory. The Devil would love it if he could get the world to follow their feelings, but he'd also enjoy everyone submitting to an objective reality so long as they do so without holding to God as the Author and Creator of it. When we mistake the battle we're in for some sort of merely political or cultural one, then we'll defend it as such, never mentioning God and robbing Him of the glory that is His due... which is the end the Devil was after in the first place.

The curious case of the Christian Reformed Church (10 minute read)

"'How many denominations have gone this far down the road toward theological liberalism and then put on the brakes in a significant way?' Monroe asked. None."

This is a longer piece, but a fantastic overview of the liberal and orthodox twists and turns that have happened in the CRC denomination over the last 40 years, and in particular the last half dozen. On the brink of plunging into all sorts of sexual perversion, the CRC seems to be solidly reversing course. Praise God!

Green Greenland was good

A headline from the New Scientist this month read, "Fossils show Greenland was once ice-free – and could be again." That has some rather big implications for our climate change catastrophists who hold that it is a crisis for the Earth to be warmer.

A shovel dance? (3 min)

I'm not going to bother mentioning the title of the old Western this comes from because this is the best scene in it.

And boy is it good!

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News, Pro-life - Euthanasia

State-sanctioned murder now the 5th leading cause of death in Canada
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News

Saturday Selections – August 10, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles... Red Green's pit crew "You know when a flatbed gets ahead of you in a race it's not going w...
Closeup of a woman's feet in high heels next to a car in the dark.
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News

Prostitution laws challenged at Supreme Court of Canada
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News, Transgenderism

Transmutilation defender comes to regret youthful tattoo
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News

Reformed book publisher changes hands

Reformed book publisher Paideia Press, which has published over 400 titles since it started in the late 1970’s, has been gifted to the Cántaro Institute. Many Dutch Reformed readers will be familiar with Paideia titles like Scout, Journey Through the Night and the well-loved devotional Daylight by Rev. Andrew Kuyvenhoven. After some quiet years, the publisher resurfaced in the past decade, and while S.G. DeGraaf’s fantastic four-volume Promise and Deliverance series might be the only holdover from those former days, they have a slew of new titles promoting “reformational thinking.” Paideia Press was the effort of Niagara-based entrepreneur John Hultink. He has now gifted all the titles and copyrights to Cántaro Institute, which bills itself as a “reformed confessional organization committed to the advancement of the Christian worldview for the reformation and renewal of the church and culture.” The institute is based on the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689). What might be of most interest to our readership is the Institute’s own publishing efforts defending creation which includes titles like Jerry Bergman’s Evolution’s Dangerous Ideas and C.S. Lewis’s War Against Scientism & Naturalism. They have also made e-book versions of Promise and Deliverance available for free, which is a great quick study aid for parents and teachers trying to share Bible stories with children. You can find all four volumes by searching for “Promise and Deliverance” at CantaroInstitute.org....

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Media bias, News

Canada's news ban one year later

It's been a year now since Meta banned Canadian news from its Facebook and Instagram platforms, in response to Canada's 2023 "Online News Act." This Act required large "digital news intermediaries" – only Google and Meta met the criteria – to compensate Canadian news outlets for news articles the social media giants shared on their platforms. Instead of paying up, Meta instead chose to stop sharing these news links. Now, a year later, a report from the Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO) highlights how the ban has hurt Canadian media's online presence. The report estimated that pre-ban, Canadian news outlets' social media engagement amounted to more than 19 million a day, but post ban that has dropped by 8 million or roughly 43%. It has hit local news particularly hard because many were only on Facebook, and not other platforms. The results also include almost a third of Canadian news outlets going effectively dark on the social web, no longer posting to it. 770 outlets were posting prior to the ban, and a year later that's down by 215. So in some pretty significant ways the Online News Act is hurting, rather than helping, Canadian news outlets. The premise behind the Act was always flawed. It was built on the presumption that by linking to news articles, these two companies, in some way, owed the news outlets something. Google and Meta were making money off of sharing these news links, as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram rank one, two, and three among the places Canadians turn to for their news. Being a home to these links brought more traffic, which meant more ad revenue. But Meta and Google were helping their bottom line by also helping these news outlets. Any online creator, big or small, wants their content shared – that's how we can reach further. No shares means no reads, watches, or listens. That's why companies will pay Meta and Google to share their posts – so we can reach more people. The idea of penalizing these companies for sharing links to news articles is akin to penalizing them for giving out free promotional ads. Both Google and Meta threatened to simply stop carrying any Canadian news – if what they were doing was going to be viewed as theft, then they would stop "stealing." However, shortly before the Act came into force, Google negotiated an agreement with the Canadian government, giving it $100 million a year to be distributed as the government so decides. The Act becomes yet another medium for the Liberal government to direct dollars to the media outlets it wants to support. Meta held firm – it would not pay – so it chose instead to stop allowing Canadian news shares on its platforms. The government backed them into a corner, and they decided to show just how helpful (and not harmful) they were to Canada's news outlets... by no longer helping them. A year later, and the point has been well made. Canadians are still turning to Facebook and Instagram for their news, but there isn't much to find. The Online News Act has effectively prevented many Canadians from being able to access Canadian news coverage. So, will the government learn its lesson and back down? Or is the Liberal government happy with Canadians being limited in their access to Canadian news? If that first doesn't happen, it only makes the second seem quite plausible....

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News

Saturday Selections – August 3, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles... Are memories stored in the brain? History shows that the deeper we delve into how wondrously we are created, the more mysteries there are to investigate. This shouldn't surprise us, since we worship a God without end. But I think the arrogance of the evolutionists – the guys who say we are so simple we came about without direction or design – has impacted even God's people such that, with the possible exception of seeing a newborn baby, we don't marvel like we really should when we look across our table at another person created in the very image of our Creator. How fascinating then, to discover that scientists are still working out where our memories are stored. Thought it was the brain and that's that? Not so fast! "There is no question that proper function of the brain is necessary for ordinary memories — that is, the ordinary acquisition of knowledge and its retention. Yet removal of major parts of the brain — including removal of entire lobes and hemispheres — does not usually remove memories. That should not be surprising if we assume that psychological things like memories are not the kind of things that can be cut out with a scalpel." The verse that shuts theistic evolution down Christians are sometimes confused about whether the theory of evolution can be meshed with the Creation account in Genesis 1 and 2. But whereas Evolution says we are continuing to change from one species to the next, Genesis 2:1 tells us that the job is done: "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished." Free books on the "realities of socialism" Socialism is pitched as the compassionate economic system. But in reality it is the envious system, always looking over the back fence and making plans for what our neighbors have. It violates the Tenth Commandment, and because God's commands are also an expression of His love for us, protecting the obedient from self-induced harms, violating them brings real harm. And socialism causes real harm. The folks at the Fraser Institute aren't explicitly Christian, and may not be Christian at all, but they are very familiar with the harms caused by socialism. They've come out with a series of five books on the "realities of socialism" as it was experienced in Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, and Singapore. Power outages bring hurricane of EV buyers' remorse The switch to EV has a downside that is dangerous: when a hurricane takes down power lines, what are EV users going to do to get out of Dodge? Tim Challies on 10 serious problems with Jesus Calling Challies takes issue with a book that millions of Christians have bought and enjoyed. Am I a racist? From the same folks who brought us the fantastic What is a Woman? comes a new film this fall. So, it could be really good - check out the trailer below. ...

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News

Saturday Selections – July 27, 2024

How questions can help you offer a good answer (7 min) In the New Testament, Jesus asks as many questions as he offers answers. Why? Maybe because questions can be a helpful way to cut through people's obfuscations, as Greg Koukl also shows here. Counsel the bitter person A bitter person can't forget the wrongs done to them, but can only do so by forgetting the vast registry of wrongs they've committed against their great God. This article presses hard on the need to forgive, noting that God even makes it conditional for us to forgive if we expect to be forgiven by Him (Matt. 6:12, Matt. 6:14-15). That's not a requirement to do so perfectly, but it is a requirement to try, however falteringly. Read like a Christian Samuel James offers up 5 principles to help Christians dive into a book. I think the first one here might be key: reading can be done just for fun, and that can include reading light, fluffy "candy" books... but don't get stuck on vanilla ice cream. Have you tried salted caramel? Read whimsically, not wastefully Read personally, not performatively Read with generosity, not grievance Read with wonder, not weariness Read for eternity, not ephemera How breastfeeding changed my view of God Rebecca McLaughlin reflects on a favorite verse she understands very differently after her first child: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.” Why don't electric eels shock themselves, and other remarkable design solutions in biology Here are some biological features – that you've probably never heard about before – which require precise design and which therefore evidence a precise Designer: "Snakes should be immune to their own poison. Electric eels should not shock themselves. And protection from self-generated noise requires a preplanned noise cancellation system." The astonishing human egg! The link above is a part of a series of Intelligent Design articles on the amazing complexity of the human reproductive system. The video below is brilliant 10-minute overview from conception to birth. If high school students actually learned this, in detail, I don't know that any of them could fail to recognize themselves for the special creation that they are. This really is a must-see for our older kids. That said, while it is not graphic, it is detailed, and could prompt younger children to ask questions you might not want to answer quite yet, so be sure to preview it before sharing. ...

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News

BC finally declares Covid emergency is over

Fired healthcare workers can now apply for work ***** Over four years after declaring a public health emergency over Covid-19, BC’s provincial hea...
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News

Former cop, coroner and mayor does a 180 on drug policy
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News

Saturday Selections – July 20, 2024

Reagan's deeply personal argument for a Creator (10 min read / 1 min video) It was an analogy he returned to frequently, with students at an evangeli...
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News

The attempted assassination of a President

The roles of divine providence and the human condition **** Saturday marked the end of the longest span between domestic assassination attempts of U...
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News

Saturday Selections – July 13, 2024

Click on the titles below for the linked articles... One thing Trump and Biden agree on: tariffs Both Trump and Biden want to protect American producers by imposing tariffs (i.e., fines) on foreign goods. Their approach would make those foreign goods more expensive for Americans. If the fine is high enough, it will also make American-made versions of those same goods look comparatively attractive.... which is then supposed to save some American jobs. While tariffs do save some local jobs, they can do so only at the expense of other local jobs. Any American company that uses a tariffed good to make their own products, will have to pay these inflated prices, which in turn will make their own products more expensive... and less competitive in the international marketplace. Thus the tariff will cost them jobs. Tariffs also help some local producers by hurting local consumers, who have to pay more now. The overall impact of tariffs, then, is to help some domestic producers... but only at the expense of other domestic producers and domestic consumers overall. That leaves us with the question: why should the government be picking winners and losers, giving advantages to some citizens at the expense of others? How the US Republicans became pro-choice This is a US article but with real relevance to Canadian voters for its explanation of "median voter theorem." As Joe Carter outlines, it is only when a block of principled voters are willing to abandon a party that they gain influence over that party. If all their voters will always vote for the slightly lesser of two evils, then that is what their party will give them. The party only takes more extreme positions to appeal to voters who won't otherwise vote for them. Southern Baptists take on IVF Last month, the US's biggest protestant denomination passed a resolution on IVF. As Albert Mohler shares: "Far too many Christians say they believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life at every stage, from fertilization to natural death, but when the issue turns to the massive ethical issues related to IVF, many evangelicals, including far too many Southern Baptists, have refused to connect the dots." Jack Phillips still won't bake the cake After 12 years of legal battles and a Supreme Court victory, a Colorado baker is being dragged to court yet again for the same supposed crime – he will not decorate cakes to celebrate depravity. John Stonestreet explains that Baker Jack Phillips won't live by lies – it would be easier to bake the cake, but he will not call good what God calls evil. So, Phillips is working out his theology of getting fired. Forget grocery store boycotts - to lower food prices end supply management instead "...regulation that restricts supply and controls imports... shields Canadian producers of milk, eggs and poultry from competition, allowing them to maintain higher prices for their products than would otherwise exist in a competitive market.... due to supply management the average Canadian household pays an estimated extra $300 to $444 annually for groceries." Don't fall for projection Projecting is a particular form of hypocrisy in which you accuse others of the sin you are guilty of. A recent example is Kamala Harris accusing Donald Trump of planning to use lawfare on his opponents. Paul has an answer to the vice president in Romans 2:1: "Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things." A recent, particularly blatant, instances of projection happens is this commercial below from Australia's Victoria State government below – they accuse a smaller woman of making a big guy in a dress feel "unsafe." The Left uses projection as a weapon to deflect, much like when one of your kids is called to account and wants to talk about what their sibling, neighbor, classmate, or even you did, rather than facing accountability for what they've done. Projection works on the soft-hearted, so it's a particularly effective tool against Christians. But there is a time and place to acknowledge your own sins, and a time when it isn't about you. When the prophets confronted God's people, they didn't do so as perfect representatives of God. Sinful though they were, they brought His Truth. So, if a homosexual accuses you of being unloving – if they are screaming it in your face, OR TYPING IT IN ALL CAPS – then now is not the time to acknowledge how you could have said things better, parsed your words more carefully or expressed the grace of God more clearly. Think like a parent, and realize that if you let their projection deflect you from expressing the truth they need to hear, you aren't doing them any good. ...

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News

Saturday Selections – July 6, 2024

How social media keeps you poor (10 min) Though the two commentators here aren't Christian, the warning they offer may help us better resist social media's siren call. Spider silk might be ideal for nerve repairs Spider silk may be a great medium to regrow severed nerves in people, and that's just one of its amazing properties. If Man could make it, he would, but despite all our genius and equipment, we can't duplicate what a spider, with a brain the size of a pin, can make all on its own. Motherhood myth busting Feminists have women fearful of having children, with fertility treated more as a problem to be solved than as a gift (or if they deny God, an ability) specific to women. They look to children from a cost/benefit perspective and don't see how the pleasure derived from children can outweigh the bother. And from that self-absorbed perspective, it will be hard to enjoy any kids you might have. But, "if life has meaning beyond comfort and pleasure, then something can be difficult and worth pursuing at the same time. " Parents' guide to smartphones (10-minute read) The folks at Axis cover the highs and lows. It's a longer read but there is so much helpful material in here that this is a must-read for parents with teens. Communicating about sex in the first years of marriage "How can you have meaningful conversations about sex with your spouse? You should be sure to address wants, worries, ways, and why's..." When the government bets your house Like previous installments in this "Unintended Consequences" series, these are well-intentioned plans going wildly awry. While this is a secular presentation, the lesson being pitched is one Christians can get behind: there is an overall need for humility, because even (especially?) experts can get things really, really wrong. This humility wouldn't simply mean leaders, and the experts they follow, need to double-check their work. What it means is that our leaders and these experts need to admit to not being able to do many of the things they are currently trying to do now.... and they need to stop meddling in them. Just consider if, in the Sri Lankan case presented below, only some of the farmers had tried organic pesticides. Maybe they would have tried it as a marketing effort – get your organic rice from us! It would have been an experiment, but the farmers would have been gambling with their own land, money, and work. That's high stakes for them, but they are betting on themselves, their own smarts, and their efforts. And because it is only some farmers, win or lose, it isn't a high-stakes gamble for the whole country. If they had succeeded, they would have gotten the benefit and they would have been an example for others to learn from and copy. And if they'd failed, then others could also learn and avoid their mistake. However, when the government made the decision to ban inorganic pesticides for everyone, they were gambling with land, money, and work that wasn't theirs. And they were forcing everyone into just the one experiment. If it succeeded, wonderful, but the problem is, were it to fail, they were taking everyone down with them. That makes it a much, much higher stakes gamble. And anyone who has any humility shouldn't even think to bet someone else's house on their best guess. ...

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News

New Brunswick still isn’t banning smartphones in school

According to Paige MacPherson and Alex Whalen of the Fraser Institute, cellphones’ negative impact on students has been especially apparent in New Brunswick. The Maritime province has not banned cellphone in school, and has seen math scores among 15-year-olds plummet between 2003 and 2022. Worse than that, these scores trail the national average significantly. Other provinces, including British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta and Quebec, have introduced, or will introduce, smartphone bans in schools. And surprisingly, a large majority of Canadians seem to favor bans like these (one poll listed it as 54% completely in agreement and 26% somewhat so). Rather than seeing it as a restriction on student freedom, Canadians seem to recognize there is wisdom in taking these devices away during at least part of the day. Maybe that support comes from grown-ups recognizing how hard it is to regulate their own phone use, how difficult it is to resist the urge to look at it after just a few seconds of boredom. Maybe responsible use of phones during focus times isn’t possible, especially when these phones are designed to be used as often as possible. If the world around us is starting to reassess their relationships with their phones, it’s time for us as Christians to be more confident in the boundaries we draw with technology. Especially when young developing minds are concerned. After all, with everything tempting us to use our phones more and more, fighting that temptation will take the support of a community to reduce our dependence – and our children’s dependence – on them. As parents, we will have to agree to be comfortable with phoning the school instead of reaching our children directly. As adults whom children look up to, we’ll have to demonstrate how to handle those moments of boredom. And as a community, we can prioritize face-to-face interactions and social connections in the real world, enough to make the virtual world look much less attractive....

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News

Young men building a home for the Reformed confessions

Some ambitious young men can fix their own vehicles, and others can help frame a home or build an impressive app. But two young men from Southern Alberta, who have impressive tech and video skills, have channeled their energy towards advancing something else entirely – the Reformed confessions, including the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, Canons of Dort, and Westminster Standards. The Reformed creeds and confessions aren’t owned by any particular person or church. That is a good thing, but it comes with a challenge for those looking to read and understand them better online. Although there are many sites that list the text of the confessions, or provide commentary on various aspects of these confessions, it can be a dizzying experience. “These documents are at the core of our Reformed faith and yet they have no true home. No location with everything you could want on our confessions,” explain David Visser and Kyle Vasas, the men behind Faith to Film which is working to change this with an impressive new project: ReformedConfessions.org. Not only does the site include the confessions in an easy-to-navigate layout, it also provides extended commentary and sermon libraries on these confessions. The project is just the latest from Faith to Film. They have also done a documentary on Calvinism and a large video series on the “essential truths” of the Christian faith. As well, they have produced some excellent videos for Reformed Perspective. And this website is just the start of their vision for the Reformed Confessions project. Faith to Film’s next goal is to create a high-quality video series on the Heidelberg Catechism, with one short video introducing each Lord’s Day, utilizing animation and featuring different pastors from different denominations. The two young men behind Faith to Film have the ability and the drive and but rely on others who have the financial means to sponsor these videos. If you are interested in helping, check out ReformedConfessions.org or FaithToFilm.ca....

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News

Saturday Selections – June 29, 2024

Click on the titles below for the linked articles... Presidential debate was between a pro-choice candidate and a pro-abortion one Two US presidents...
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News

"It's wrong to mutilate minors," says governor

Both Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis and Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith have backed bans on transgender “treatments” – breast and genital ...
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News

Saturday Selections – June 22, 2024

What's wrong with marijuana This is the practical case against marijuana. For the Christian case, check out "Is recreational marijuana sinful?". ...
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Economics, News

Premier Ford calls on the feds to make EV cars more expensive
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News

Mortgage delinquencies up more than 20%

Increased spending and costs are catching up with Canadian households, according to the latest figures from the credit agency Equifax Canada. Mortgage debt makes up a whopping three quarters (74.4%) of total consumer debt, even though the number of new mortgages hit an all-time low in the first quarter of 2024. More than a third (37.1%) of consumers extended their mortgage amortization as the effects of increased mortgage rates began to take hold. Particularly troubling is the increase in delinquencies, i.e. missed payments. In Ontario, the balance of mortgages in “severe delinquency” – 90 or more days without payment – increased to over $1 billion, or twice the level of severe delinquency before Covid. Rebecca Oakes, VP of Advanced Analytics at Equifax Canada, explained that “mortgage stress testing,” introduced back in 2016, helped prevent even more delinquencies. This “test” gauged whether or not a borrower would still be able to handle their mortgage payments if rates were to take an unfortunate bounce upward. “ has helped to mitigate against the full effect of sustained high interest rates, but we still saw more than 34,000 consumers missing a payment on their mortgage in Q1, which is up 22.7 per cent compared to 12 months ago.” In recent years our federal government has led the charge in running massive debts, with many provincial governments following suit. Although political parties used to campaign on the promise of balanced budgets, Canadians have rewarded parties who promise increased spending and large deficits. And especially since 2020, Canadians have followed their example, racking up massive debt from both home purchases and other big expenses. A few thousand years ago, a wise teacher taught us that “the borrower is a slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Our government acts as if it is possible to incur debt and not pay for it, but we mustn’t let their example mislead us. Solomon’s ancient warning remains every bit as relevant to today, so take on debt with great caution!...

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News

We aren’t alone! 1,000+ converge in Texas for courageous faith

In  1 Kings 19 we find Elijah lamenting to God that the Israelites had rejected God’s covenant and that he alone was left, and Queen Jezebel was out to kill him too. God informed Elijah that he had it wrong, and that God had reserved a throng of 7,000 others who had not bowed to Baal. I recently assembled with a couple dozen Canadians and over a thousand others in Arlington, Texas for the 2024 Colson Center national conference. Listening to the stories and seeing this throng of believers, it was very evident that God continues to preserve His people through each age, and that He also calls us to stand firm in the face of the Jezebels of our day. As I’ve shared before, the Colson Center equips Christians to apply their faith to the cultural moment where God has placed us. This particular conference was focused on equipping attendees for “courageous faith.” As the organizers explained: “Faithfulness to Christ is not possible when we capitulate to profane cultural narratives, no matter how often or loud they are repeated…. The clash between the sacred and the profane is no longer ‘out there’ and the pressure to compromise is not merely hypothetical.” Courage past and present In the opening session on “courageous citizenship,” the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet interviewed Rod Dreher, the author of the well-known book Live Not by Lies, and also Kamila Bendová, who was featured in Dreher’s book. Dr. Bendová and her family live in the Czech Republic. Along with her late husband Václav Benda, they raised six children while holding underground seminars in opposition to their communist government, all while having their home bugged. Dr. Bendová shared how she didn’t protect her children from their resistance efforts but rather involved them. Now, many decades later, she reflects that all of her children and grandchildren have remained faithful. We can learn from the past, but need to live in the present. Doctor Kristin Collier spoke about the courage to change your mind, recounting how her journey from unbelief to faith in Christ resulted in 180 degree changes to her convictions about contentious issues like abortion. God then forced her to make a choice to follow Him in her public work as well, which came at a cost. She pointed us to Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one,” noting that at the core of courage is listening to and obeying the Word of God. Reverend Calvin Robinson, a broadcaster and commentator from England who himself was cancelled for his faith, challenged participants “we are called to be cancelled for our faith. We should embrace it rather than be afraid of it.” He proceeded to outline how our spiritual enemy is trying to divide and conquer by having Christians look to each other as moral compasses rather than looking to the teachings of Christ. Other speakers bravely and compassionately shared their stories and lessons about critical theory, cultivating a healthy identity, artificial reproduction, transgenderism, palliative care, and encountering suffering, all through the lens of living faithfully for our Lord. Conference connections It is one thing to read articles, listen to podcasts, or watch videos about these matters and another to be physically present with hundreds of other followers of Christ, growing in our walk together. We don’t all get the privilege of doing that at a conference like this, but we do have the ability to gather with our brothers and sisters in church weekly, in addition to Bible studies and fellowship in our homes. Let’s not miss these opportunities to spur each other on to godliness in this present age! If it interests you, the next Colson Center national conference is scheduled for May 30 to June 1, 2025 in Louisville, Kentucky, and we heard that Reformed authors Carl Trueman and Rosaria Butterfield are both scheduled to speak there. Pro-life apologist Scott Klusendorf will also be there. You can find out more at ColsonConference.org. Although Canada isn’t blessed with a conference like this, Reformed Perspective hopes to help change this with something similar (though much smaller and simpler) in the years to come. As valuable as a magazine, podcast, newsletter, website, and apps are, there is no substitute to gathering with others to worship God together and spur each other on in our walk. Mark and Jaclyn Penninga were just a couple of the Canadians at the Colson Conference. Other Reformed Christians included Rev. and Mrs. Slomp, and RP contributor Mark Slomp and his wife Jennifer....

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Should government try to boost fertility?

In his article, “We are not taking Canada’s fertility crisis seriously enough,” economist Tim Sargent highlights that a society with fewer couples and children will have more loneliness and depression, and will struggle to afford pensions and healthcare. His solution? For governments to create incentives that make it easier to have and care for children. This could include making housing more affordable, offering financial incentives through the tax system, helping with childcare costs and reducing education requirements so young people can enter the workforce earlier. The trouble is, there’s very little evidence that government incentives can increase the birth rate. According to The Economist, since 2006 South Korea has been spending just over 1% of their GDP a year on incentives such as tax breaks for parents, maternity care and state-sponsored dating. And yet they continue to have the lowest birth rate in the world. Hungary has also put a lot of effort into increasing its birth rate, with some success, but they have not yet succeeded in raising the number of births to a “replacement rate” of 2.1 births per woman. The best a government policy seems to be able to do is to slow down the population decline. And this makes sense – birth rates tend to be higher not in richer countries with more incentives but in poorer countries with low GDP. Money alone is unlikely to be the solution. While people instinctively feel a lack of money is a major factor, other areas of life (that government has less control over) play a significant role in the low birth rate as well – like the fraying social fabric which puts people at odds with each other, the lack of community support that makes potential parents feel insecure, and the pressure to establish a career before a family. Other challenges include the struggle singles who want children experience in finding a like-minded partner to settle down with, the pervasive cultural messages that raising children is stressful and burdensome, and the looming sense of despair that a large number of young people feel about their future. These are not simple challenges for a government policy to address! In contrast, the Church may be able to play a more effective role in providing social support, encouragement, and hope in the face of despair to potential young parents....

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Saturday Selections – June 15, 2024

Dr. Matthew Wielicki: I refused to stay silent about climate change (8 min) One silver lining to the COVID-related censorship that happened on social media was that everyone got to see it. Mention the "lab-leak" theory and your post would be banned or have a warning label assigned to it... no matter that the case for the theory was always obvious. This "shut up the critics" tactic has long been employed in origins research too – 6-day creationists and even Intelligent Design proponents were excluded from publishing in the mainstream science journals, no matter how high the quality of their research. It shouldn't surprise us to learn that this same sort of censorship and pressure is being exerted on the climate front. As Dr. Matthew Wielicki shares, "This isn't about truth. This is about silencing people who disagree with you..." Hopeful amillennialism How is God going to bring this broken world to an end? That's a much-debated topic in Reformed circles, but maybe not all that hotly, simply because we don't think it a "salvific" issue. That's why we can more easily leave it as a matter where we might be a bit muddled. That said, one thing is clear: if you are a pessimistic amillennial, you need to repent. 3 core beliefs of the transgender movement It's no coincidence that these three beliefs run almost exactly opposite to what God has said.  As Samuel Ferguson explains, the transgender movement affirms that: My identity is self-determined My feelings, not my body, determine my gender We find wholeness through external, not internal, change Transgenderism isn't primarily an attack on logic, but rather a specific assault on God's Truth. Any godless argument against transgenderism is, then, going to be akin to standing up for your favorite athlete when the guy you're talking to has just spent the last fifteen minutes talking about your mom's weight. You're not addressing the real fight! This is a spiritual battle, and God's people need to defend Who is really being attacked. We need to give the world what it really needs to hear: that God has assigned us our gender, and given us an identity, and we can mar and mutilate, or receive and celebrate, what He has given us. Beating bullies with a compliment Kids will often have fun at another child's expense by insulting them – one child can feel big by making another feel small. Sometimes teachers will have to be involved. But as Prov. 15:1 notes, "a gentle answer turns away wrath..."  and what's proposed in this article is a version of that: try giving the bully a sincere compliment. What are they teaching kids about sex in public schools? This is a US article, but there's no reason to think it any different in Canada – mention of "alternative lifestyles" is going to be affirming. How eating out keeps you poor (7 min) Even if you don't eat out nearly as often as these people, this will still be "food" for thought for most of us. ...

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