Category: Recent Articles
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Parenting
“When you coming home, dad?”
Cat’s in the Cradle was once described by the artist’s brother as the song that “…put more fathers ill at ease than any other song in history.” Harry Chapin topped the charts with it in 1974, but it still gets…
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ParentingChores are good for our kids, and the earlier the better
Something parents have long suspected but few children have believed has been verified by research: chores are good for kids. The research that backs this…
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DocumentaryMicrocosmos
Documentary / Nature 80 min / 1996 Rating: 9/10 Have you ever wondered what it’s like for bugs when it rains, getting hit by water…
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NewsSaturday Selections – July 23, 2022
Wikipedia’s bias (8 min) One of Wikipedia’s founders now describes it as propaganda for the leftwing. The passive husband A passive husband can come off…
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InternetThe smartphone stack
You’re out with some friends having a nice dinner. But one has been talking on his phone for the last ten minutes, and a second…
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Apologetics 101The don’t and do’s of answering fools
In Proverbs 26:4-5 God says we shouldn’t argue with fools…except when we should. Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself…
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Recent ArticlesWhat is Grace?
Through sheer repetition, some Christian words seem to blend into each other and we forget their distinct meanings. That’s why the word grace is sometimes used…
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AssortedHolding on to wisdom: What would a younger you tell you to do?
I’ve written on marriage and headship in the past but when a friend asked me for my “expert take” on a marital matter he had…
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Adult non-fictionTop 3 marriage books
Over my years in the ministry, I’ve taught many marriage preparation classes. From time to time, I’ve also counseled couples with marriage problems. In my…
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NewsSaturday Selections – July 9, 2022
Great moments in unintended consequences (4 min) When governments don’t have even a basic understanding of economics, many unintended consequences can result. What I learned…
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DramaTo save a life
Drama 120 minutes; 2010 Rating: 7/10 To Save a Life is about teen suicide… and also premarital sex, abortion, underage drinking, cutting, bullying, divorce, divorce’s impact…
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Human RightsA Christian perspective on freedom of speech
This was first published in the June 2010 issue To say American author and columnist Ann Coulter is “outspoken” is rather like saying Solomon was…
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Adult biographiesPrairie Lion: The Life & Times of Ted Byfield
by Jonathon Van Maren 2022 / 256 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give God works in history through people, some of whom have a particularly significant impact. In Canada,…
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Recent ArticlesEnvironmentalists: How to tell the bad ones from the good
In 1997, while completing a science fair presentation, 14-year-old Nathan Zohner devised a way to test for bad environmentalists. The first part of his presentation…
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Parenting“Mom, where’s my toothbrush?” 9 packing tips for before and during the trip
The well-circulated belief that “moms are supposed to know where everything is at every given moment” was humorously illustrated for me two years ago when…
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PoliticsPolitical tactics 101: reframing the aggressor
The concept of self-defense is easy to understand and its validity is recognized by most people, whether Christian or not. If somebody is attacked, it…
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MarriageThe surprising secrets of highly happy marriages
**** Marriage is meant to mirror Christ and the church. One can scarcely imagine a higher calling than this, yet all marriages fall far short…
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AssortedTruth requires you to love and love requires you to be truthful
Contrary to popular opinion, love and truth don’t stand in opposition to one another. In fact, you can’t really have one without the other. To…
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DocumentaryWhat is a Woman?
Documentary 2022 / 95 minutes Rating: 9 /10 What is a woman? That’s the question that confounded US Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson earlier…
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Recent ArticlesWhat a cross-continent trek taught one pioneer about Sunday rest
My town of Lynden, Washington has a mother, Phoebe Judson, who founded our city, arriving here in 1871. She promoted Sunday closure. Here’s why. In…
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Apologetics 10110 tales to help us clear away transgender confusion
We live in a time when the obvious is not so. How exactly can we explain to someone who doesn’t get it, that saying you’re…
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AssortedLesson From My Mum: there is hope for western civilization
I learned an important lesson from a cheap house plant last week – that plant was a chrysanthemum (mum), and it comes with a background…
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Pro-life – AbortionAbraham Lincoln, on abortion
How would Abraham Lincoln have addressed the biggest moral issue of our time? We don’t have to wonder. While President Lincoln may not have spoken…
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EvangelismWhen it comes to witnessing, are we just too impatient?
How long would you patiently wait for your morning coffee? Five minutes? Would you even last that long? What if you first had to manually…
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Recent ArticlesDinosaurs and dead bodies
In a Russian laboratory, a team of highly trained Russian scientists is leaning over a dead body. The body is that of a man who…
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Being the ChurchGod wants young men to be brave, not crazy
Bravery, like most things in life, is learned. To develop it, one must practice. However, it is the very rare young man who wants to…
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Recent ArticlesWhen Steve wants to be called Sue
It had seemed a regular Monday morning before co-worker Steve arrived. Now his outfit had everyone buzzing: instead of his standard slacks/dress shirt combo, he’d…
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Recent ArticlesNeither poverty nor riches? Making God our priority in prayer
People prefer to be rich rather than poor. It’s therefore striking that the Bible gives us a record of this prayer in Prov. 30:8: …give…
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Dying WellComfort facing death
Do you ever think about your own death? Poets may come up with flowery words and philosophers may make scholarly statements that ring hollow when…
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Being the ChurchQuotes on the single life
Singles are not second “…the nuclear family should not be the center of church life. Rather, the family of God is the center…. It is the…
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EvangelismWhy we don’t evangelize and why we must
If there is a time to be silent, there is also a time to speak (Eccl. 3:7). If the gospel is the Good News entrusted…
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Recent ArticlesRepent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out
New Year’s resolutions – we all make them and then we all break them. Perhaps praying the first part of the Proverbs 30:8 prayer is…
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Being the ChurchA more generous ministry of mercy?
The Lord loves his church and gave her the gift of the ministry of mercy. But is this blessed ministry as active as it can…
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EvangelismBeing salt and light
Two thousand years after Jesus warned us against losing our savor or hiding our light (Matthew 5:13-16), sociologists made an interesting discovery. They found that…
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Being the ChurchImproving the elders’ home visits
It is October and as “home visit season” ramps up, my thoughts turn to how home visits are being conducted and whether our methods serve…
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Pro-life – AbortionPro-lifers aren’t helping people after they’re born?
When it comes to the topic of abortion, I often hear the claim that pro-lifers aren’t helping people after they’re born. The idea/objection is that…
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HomosexualityChristians and same-sex attraction
I am a Christian. I am still a sinner. We could add a whole host of other sentences to describe me, too, but these two…