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What if everything was about God?

It struck me, just recently, that I’ve been regularly promising to praise God’s Name “among the nations.” This pledge, to talk about God outside of church, out in the world, with non-Christians, comes up again and again in the songs we sing each service (Ps. 18, 57, 108, etc.).

And, just recently, God gave me an opportunity to talk about Him with more than a hundred thousand people, sharing His views on a local political issue.

God made it happen

This year our public library system asked voters to approve a roughly 66% increase in taxpayer funding. The way things work here, an official “voters’ guide” is sent out to everyone, and it includes both the reasons for and against every proposed levy. Who writes up those reasons? Whoever volunteers first. So, I recruited my wife Janice, and the two of us, along with one other gentleman from the area, became the three-person “Against Committee.”

Why was I against more money for the library? It’s because our solidly Christian town has a very unchristian library. The local branch is run by people who put on big Pride Month displays, even in the children’s section. This Spring, I bumped into a neighbor by the picture books section, and as we were chatting, she started sifting through the shelves, looking for treasures. But what she kept discovering was one disgusting picture book after another. They were about sexual development, or pushed gender-confusion and other LGBT themes, and were intended for kids barely old enough to read. Neither of us knew what to do with her growing stack. I ended up checking them all out, not because I wanted them, but because, with no late fees being collected anymore, I could at least keep these out of circulation for a good long while.

That’s all I was thinking at the time. But I still had those books on my desk when this voters’ guide opportunity popped up. Turns out, God had provided me just the ammunition I’d need for my write-up.

What kind of win?

While I wanted to focus on how the library was opposing God and what He’s said about gender and sex, the third person on our Against Committee wanted a focus on the money. Making it about the money could broaden the appeal to anyone in the county who cared about their pocketbook. Surely that was a bigger group than just the concerned Christians!

Asking for a two-thirds increase is significant, so he had a point. It’s also a familiar point. When it comes to politics, Christians tend to bring forward fiscal issues, or other generally conservative points, rather than anything explicitly Christian. In this case, if more people care about money than God, isn’t the winning strategy obvious?

The thing is, not all wins are wins. In 279 BC, King Pyrrhus of Epirus defeated the Romans at the Battle of Asculum, but at a devastating cost to his own army. Ever since then the term Pyrrhic victory has been used to describe a win that leaves the victor weaker than before. In Christians’ engagement with the world, we will, for the sake of some perceived short-term victory, overlook the long-term consequences that come with excluding God from the public square. We wonder why our culture is turning from God, but if, for strategic reasons, God’s own people won’t profess His Name in politics, who are we expecting will?

Every square inch

The world is the LORD’s, and consequently, the Devil is always and forever trying to get us to overlook, downplay, or deny that. In this library skirmish, the real issue wasn’t how much, but rather Who the library was opposing. So, what kind of win would it be if we had to shut up about our LORD to get it? If the Devil could choose to make us focus on either money or God, wouldn’t he choose money every time? The devil’s win is getting Christians to self-censor their praise and rob God of the glory that is His due.

Thankfully, while the third member of our committee wanted money mentioned, he was happy to keep God central. After some back and forth, this is what we sent out to 140,000 eligible voters:

Argument Against
In the opening chapters of Genesis we learn that God made us male and female (Gen. 1:27) and sex is intended for marriage (Gen. 2:24). Our library system actively opposes these truths, and wants more money to do so.

They oppose God in their teen section where Beyond Magenta shares an account of oral sex with a six-year-old. Despite this being brought to the library’s attention, they didn’t pull the book.

That opposition is apparent even in the picture book section. Your preschooler can pull My Princess Boy off the shelf and ask you whether boys should wear dresses too. Being You: A First Conversation About Gender will teach them that “it’s okay to wonder: Am I a girl? Am I a boy? Am I both? Am I neither?” And Everybody is a Rainbow depicts naked genitalia.

A $600,000 home currently pays about $155 a year to this system – the library wants to up that almost $100, to $252. We have increasing food, electricity, housing, and gas costs – that’s what we need our money for. We most certainly don’t need to give more money to a library that’s opposing God-given truths and sowing confusion, even among the littlest.

The voters’ guide only allowed us 200 words, but the debate was also being had in the local paper. The paper published an article arguing for the increase, touting the library as somewhere safe to go. I got 300 words, in a letter to the editor, to share how God knows best what is best for us, and a library pushing transsexual confusion on little kids isn’t safe at all.

Three kinds of objections

Objections came in three sorts. Folks noted that, if it was about the money, borrowing from a library can save you a lot of money. That was a decent point, and it underscores the danger of what could have happened if we’d made this minor point our major one – we would have wasted all our energy on a matter that doesn’t matter.

Another objection was along the lines of “Don’t force your God or your views on me.” But this objection applies better to their position than to ours. Christians don’t want to be forced to pay even more money to support views our Lord opposes. Meanwhile, the library and its supporters want to force us to cough up cash for their agenda. The irony was heavy.

The third objection was over the definition of words like “safety,” “love,” and “gender,” and whose definition we were going to go with, the Left’s or God’s.

A real win

The vote went against us, and now we’ll have to hand over even more money to a library that’s shown it hates God. In the past that kind of result might have gotten me frustrated.

This time I’m just grateful. God gave me an opportunity to praise His Name in public, and He made it easy for me. He put the committee sign-up sheet in front of my face, and so pre-arranged things to get my neighbor to track down the obscene picture books I could cite as horrible examples. Then He got a couple hundred words about Him sent out by a State that hates Him to over one hundred thousand voters who don’t normally hear about Him.

It was a political campaign with the focus on God. Because everything is about God. And He is amazing.

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Saturday Selections – Aug. 16, 2025

Life's building blocks: everything, everywhere, all at once (1 minute) You can build some of the basic elements of a cell in a lab. But there's no process that can build them all together, which is what you need for life. In other words, even with a blueprint at the ready – scientists have cells they can observe – and refined materials and supercomputers and skilled geniuses, they not only can't make life in a lab, they demonstrate how it could never happen by accident out in the wild. The amazing ways fathers matter "Involved fathers made an especially big difference for girls’ mental health, with 10 times the number of female students being diagnosed with depression and risk of self-harm when they had disengaged or absent fathers." 6 ways that Christianity answers the "problem of pain" ... and also worth noting, the world doesn't have much of any answer at all. Should we ban smartphones from our schools? Jonathan Haidt thinks so. Here are five key quotes from his book, The Anxious Generation... On "replacement theology" Rev. Witteveen on God's plan for Israel today... What's wrong with censorship Prov. 18:17 is known by some as the journalist's proverb, but its value extends to far beyond just reporters. It says: "The first to present his case seems right, until a second comes and questions him." This, in a nutshell, is the Christian case against censorship. What we know of fallen human nature means that we don't trust any one person or institution to have the necessary brilliance or character to always be right. The Christian case for free speech is also, essentially, the freedom to pursue God, and His Truth. All sorts of questions and skeptical arguments could be allowed in this pursuit.... though blasphemy need not be. We have good reason to be for free speech... but not without restriction. After all, God is our god, not free speech. ...

Theology

The Lifelong Battle

I hate it. I love it. I’m held in its grip. Its power’s alarming. I feel myself slip. It draws me with offers Of quiet and rest, Of freedom from sorrow, Escape when I’m stressed. But it always leaves me So cold and alone, With shame and confusion – I reap what I’ve sown. And yet I keep going, Returning for more; A slave to behaviors I also abhor. The devil, he whispers, “Just do it once more; This time you’ll enjoy it Far more than before.” I’m weak, and I know it, And fighting is hard, For moment by moment I must be on guard. It is so much easier To give in to sin, To yield to temptation And let Satan win. But while sin allures me, I hear Jesus say, “Come, ask me for mercy, For help every day. I lift up the fallen, Forgive all your sin; I’ll strengthen and help you Again and again.” I hate it. I hate it. When ‘gainst God I sin. Oh Saviour, please help me The vict’ry to win....

Assorted

Why I don’t have a bucket list

Admittedly, to get guilt tripped into a camping trip exposes character weakness on my part. When someone bounds up to you, excited as a kitten encountering his first ball of yarn, and says they have the best idea for a geology fieldtrip, spanning 3 days (“ooh, ooh, no let’s turn it into 4!”), 400 miles, and something like 8 piles of rocks, any person with their wits about them would laugh and say, “Y’all have fun now, I’ll be over here, sleeping in my own bed.” People who camp on purpose, non-ironically, are an utter mystery to me. The more I learn about camping, the more outrageous and certifiable it seems! Did you know that KOA (one of the largest campground empires in the United States and yes, there is such a thing as a campground empire) stands for Kampgrounds of America?? How are we not promoting illiteracy and the overall degradation of our dignity by paying these people to borrow their dirt so we can sleep on it? Did you further know that after you have paid to sleep on dirt out in “nature,” you still are required to either buy or pack in your own wood for building campfires? In the (wait for it...) woods? Yet for the longest time during the diabolical planning of this trip, whose chief stated end was to go and stare at rocks, I could not bring myself to say “no, absolutely not, life is too short.” Which leads me to the character flaw, and my grandmother. ***** In the same week that this trip was scheduled to take place, I received word that my grandmother, my dad’s 94-year-old mother, had suffered a severe stroke. As I write this, I await further word on her condition; things didn’t look good last night. So I have been contemplating my grandmother, someone I have always found to be remarkable and not, perhaps, for the usual reasons. My grandmother was the quintessential farmwife. She raised four children, kept a lovely home, and was known for feeding people well. In many ways, I didn’t truly get to know her until I got married at age 20 and we both discovered that I shared her love of beautiful dishes, and of tables set to appeal to the senses. It was something she was teased about a bit over the years, her large collections of glassware, full sets of tableware, antique bowls and coffee service, but it has captivated me since childhood. She gave me my first everyday serving bowls when my oldest was a toddler – the same ones she used when her kids were little, and then proceeded to gift me antique glassware for my birthday for the next nearly 20 years. The year the glassware stopped was the same year she stopped calling on my birthday; that was, perhaps, the first time a birthday ever made me feel my age. I was blessed with 2 beautiful, intelligent farming grandmothers growing up; my mom’s mom went to the Lord a couple of years ago, and I like to think there are flavors of each of these women’s influences in my own farmwife homemaking. My maternal grandmother was known for ingenuity with the food at hand, with using her abundant garden to set visually peaceful tables, with the sort of minimalism that employs only that which is meaningful. My paternal grandmother was known for overflowing tables (why serve one kind of meat when you could serve three?), and for leftovers that could feed an army, created with simple recipes that everyone loved, served with what I find to be an uncommon blend of elegance and utility. She had no shame in making her mashed potatoes from a box, and paper napkins were a blessing. No one ever left her table hungry. I asked her once to teach me how she cooked various meats, how her meals always taste so good. She shrugged and said, “just a little salt and pepper?” As a person tempted by gourmet magazines, it was an important lesson for me. ***** And this, obviously, leads me to the ill-fated camping trip (not obvious, you say? We should spend more time together). The thing that guilted me into agreeing to this grand adventure of curiosity and literally leaving no stone unturned was the feeling that good mothers, or for that matter, that really interesting people, are the sort who long to travel the world, to always be experiencing new things. They are the ones who cannot simply read about a volcano, they have to climb it! At sunrise! And then go glissading down it, trying all the while to avoid hidden frozen lakes (you think I am making this up. Friend, I couldn’t make this stuff up. I refer you to your friendly neighborhood internet browser to prove the point)! How could I be worth anything at all if my bucket list was not perpetually on the verge of overflow? What does the truth – that I don’t even have a bucket list– say about me, about my value as a mother, as a wife, as a Christian? My grandmother has run well. She has lived an extraordinary life, and why? Because her life has been marked by extraordinary faithfulness to the task at hand. She has steadily built the portion of the kingdom wall God put in front of her. The pitfall I fell into was to believe that true faithfulness had to look different than embracing the life God has given me – it had to look both more “normal” and more exciting. I gave room to the lie that setting a gracious table was inferior to seeing something new, to having an adventure outside my own home. I am kicking myself as I write this... how could I have been so daft as to think that kicking rocks was more full of glory than grilling fresh corn on the cob, that sleeping on dirt had more inherent value than putting clean sheets on my family’s beds? Sitting here in the morning light, having removed myself from the geology fieldtrip, the truth of what it means to live well shines brightly before me. Only what’s done for Christ will last....

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – August 2025

Husbands, build up your wife R. Kent Hughes in Disciplines of a Godly Man, on Churchill at his very best: “Winston Churchill once attended a formal banquet in London, where the dignitaries were asked the question, ‘If you could not be who you are, who would you like to be?’ Naturally, everyone was curious as to what Churchill, who was seated next to his beloved Clemmie, would say. After all, Churchill would not be expected to say Julius Caesar or Napoleon. When it finally came Churchill’s turn, the old man, the last respondent to the question, rose and gave his answer. ‘If I could not be who I am, I would most like to be’ — here he paused to take his wife’s hand — ‘Lady Churchill’s second husband.’ The old boy made some points that night. But he also said it for everyone who has a good marriage.” One step to a balanced budget Billionaire Warren Buffet once proposed a one-point plan to ensure the United States would always have a balanced budget. It was a half-serious, half-genuine, 100-per-cent-genius suggestion. And it's equally applicable in Canada. "You just pass a law that says that any time there's a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. Yeah, yeah, now you've got the incentives in the right place, right? ….If you guys can't get it done, we'll get some other guys to get it done. The only problem: the people who would have to pass such a law are the same people who would lose their jobs." Worst names In an old copy of Reader’s Digest, one letter writer noted that their relatives had gotten married in the Boring Baptist Church. It was a curious name. Might it have come about as a reaction to the seeker-sensitive marketing that has churches hyping that "We have a great band, a puppet ministry for the kids, and the very best coffee bar in town!" But no, this is simply what the folks in Boring, Oregon called one of the local Baptist churches. A bad name, to be certain, but better than what the congregations have to deal with in Falls, Virginia. Who wants to say they go to a Falls church? Clues for the clueless Modesty is a battle that every upcoming generation seems keen to wage. So if your teens are either wearing their clothes too high or too low, here's a couple tips that may be hepful. BOYS: If their pants hang low, arrange for the little sister to point out: "Freddy, I can see your panties!” That should do it. GIRLS: This line might be best delivered by mom, or maybe grandma: "If you can’t sit down in it without being indecent, it isn’t decent.” Playing at religion C.S. Lewis, in Miracles, wrote about sinful man's tendency to pretend to seek after God. But what may come of even that when the Holy Spirit is involved? “It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. ‘Look out!’ we cry, ‘It's alive!’ And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back – I would have done so myself if I could – and proceed no further with Christianity. An ‘impersonal God’ – well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness inside our own heads – better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power that we can tap-best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the Hunter, King, Husband – that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (‘Man's search for God!’) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us!” A bumper sticker worth 1,000 words A good question can be a powerful thing (as Jesus demonstrated in His earthly ministry). Spurgeon – the rap If you've got reservations about rap, that's understandable – like rock and pop, most of it is horrible. But consider also what a Reformed rapper can do with this genre. Here's Shai Linne, with part of Verse 3 from his ode to Charles Spurgeon. (Click here to hear him perform it.) To observe this servant is extremely instructive One word about Spurgeon is he was productive Preached Jesus - no speakers - loudly he’d shout it Each week packed houses of crowds in the thousands His sermons were published - sixty-two volumes He worked almost like he just knew he would die soon Made mad disciples, passed on his knowledge Established a school to train pastors in college Sold out to the Lord Jehovah, his portion Also he built two homes for the orphans A monthly magazine, plus he wasn’t too busy to write books - about a hundred and fifty God’s grace in Spurgeon was manifest But remember, the best man is a man at best Yes, he struggled with depression - consistently sick, kid Both he and Susannah, physically afflicted He experienced as a servant of Jesus The power of God made perfect in weakness Later on comes complications His stands for orthodoxy got him shunned by his denomination But through all the hardship and all the controversy He never stopped relying on the sovereign God of mercy And when he had finished pressing towards the goal He entered into heaven at the age of fifty-seven His life is a case of God’s grace effectively At work in sinners to leave a great legacy The proof is many years later in your speakers We’re praising Jesus for raising up the "prince of preachers." Don’t all religions lead to God? In Together for GOOD, Jay Adams gives readers a fictionalized conversation between Greg Cunninghamm, a pastor, and Bob Rawlston, an unbelieving man wrestling with the Book of John. One of the Bob's struggles is with John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." It is the exclusive claim of the last sentence that bothers Bob. "I always thought that whatever religion you accept, so long as you are sincere, it will ultimately lead you to God. But Jesus doesn't provide much room for anybody except those who believe in Him." The pastor has two responses well worth considering: "If all religions lead to God, surely He wouldn't be much of a God since He'd be a contradiction in Himself. You see, since every religion contradicts every other, and if all of their ways lead to God, then God Himself must be confused. You wouldn't want to believe in a God who says one thing today and the opposite tomorrow, one thing to one person and the opposite to another, I'm sure? ".... And think of this: if people can be saved from their sins some other way than by believing the Gospel, then Jesus' crucifixion was not only a senseless tragedy, but sending Him to die was a stupid, brutal act on God's part. No matter how you squeeze it, when you think rationally, you have to come to the conclusion that if there's one God, there can only be one way." Math to make you smile In Craig Damrauer’s New Math the author takes everyday language and gives the words mathematical definitions. Sometimes the results are insightful. His definition of a Ponzi scheme makes it evident that those that fall for them are, most often, looking to get something for nothing: Ponzi scheme = ROI – R – I (ROI stands for Return On Investment). Other definitions are merely humorous. Here are a half dozen of the best. MODERN ART = I could do that + yeah, but you didn’t PERSEVERANCE = if at first you don’t succeed + repetition DOG = cat + loyalty REVENGE = do unto others – as you would have them do unto you CHILDREN = joy – sleep LOSING ARGUMENT = you’re right + I’m sorry REALIST = pessimist + good PR Why read Christian biographies? In his article, "Brothers, read Christian biographies," John Piper explained why we should: “Hebrews 11 is a divine mandate to read Christian biography…. If we asked the author, ‘How shall we stir one another up to love and good works?’ (10:24), his answer would be: ‘Through encouragement from the living (10:25) and the dead’ (chap. 11). Christian biography is the means by which ‘body life’ cuts across the generations.” Danger of biblical biographies I once read a fictionalized biblical biography of Paul that left me thinking that he and James fought over whether we can be saved by works or faith. I learned later that this was the author inserting his own perspective, and, not yet discerning enough to sift what was biblical from what was fiction, I swallowed it all. Some years back, Joanna Voschezang, writing in the Faith in Focus denominational magazine of the Reformed Churches of New Zealand, expressed a similar concern: “ sub-genre within that of biography is a section which could just as well be entitled ‘Biblical Novels.’ There are a number of books that have been written about people in the Bible such as Rahab, Joshua, Moses and Tamar. These books are written with very little factual, biblical information to go on and yet an entire story has been made around it. The danger of these books is that they can color your view of that biblical character for the rest of your life and yet 95 percent of it will be conjecture on the part of the author. When it comes to the lives of those in the Bible it is best to stick with the original source – God’s holy Word!” The real thing In Charles Martin’s When Crickets Cry, the main character has a frank conversation about pornography with a young man named Termite. "Your mind imprints images, especially that kind, on the heart, so that ten and fifteen years down the road, when you're married and trying to make something out of your life, they come drifting back, bubbling up and reminding you how much greener the grass is outside your own bed. I have loved one woman in my lifetime...she's been gone five years, but, I've got enough memories to last a lifetime, and I wouldn't sell you a single one for every picture in every magazine around the world. And you know something– the ones where she has her clothes on are worth just as much as the ones without.... Love is no tool; neither is a woman's heart." ….Termite scoffed and shoved the last bite of jerky into his mouth “How would you know? You just said you’ve loved only one woman. I think you need to test-drive a few cars before you buy one." "You can buy that lie if you want, but if you're working for a bank, you don't study the counterfeit to know the real thing. You study the real thing to know the counterfeit.... From out of the heart, you speak. You put that crap in your heart, and you can't help but find it coming out your mouth. It'll color and flavor your whole person. Pretty soon, it'll eat you up." Cults flourish wherever the Church is neglectful Some cults are started by charismatic figures with large egos – they are quite happy to have the attention on themselves rather than God. But as Jay Adams explained, sometimes it is the Church that is to blame for the rise of a cult: "…as someone has said, 'Cults are the unpaid bills of the Church.' What does that mean? Simply this – whenever the church of Jesus Christ fails to emphasize some truth, and becomes imbalanced in one direction or another, it leaves room for a cult to creep in and take over that area of theology which it has neglected. You didn’t pay your bill, so someone else moves in to take possession of what was your God-given responsibility to teach in the first place. Take the days in which there was little emphasis upon eschatology. The Adventist cults gained favor. The period in which there was little concern for pastoral care led to the beginnings of the healing cults." From insult to insightful "The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false- for the urge to rule it.” Some quotes age well. This bit, from H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), was originally targeting Christian missionaries heading off to “foreign parts” and, in that context, was simply insulting. But today, when we have would-be environmental, economic, educational, and political saviors, all of whom are demanding more control and more power, Mencken’s words have become insightful....

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Saturday Selections – Aug. 9, 2025

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Assorted

Yea, all things

come not by chance but by His fatherly hand - Lord’s Day 10 ***** The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. – Pro...

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Each year the Fraser Institute observes a “Tax Freedom Day” – this year it happened on June 8 – that tracks Canadians’ total tax burden when...

How to stop taking the Bible for granted

“Scripture has never been easier to obtain, and Scripture has never been more difficult to absorb.” Let that sink in for a minute. I read that quote the other day in The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg, and was struck by that sad truth. It reminded me of a recent discussion around our dinner table, when Pop told us the story of Mary Jones. She was a poor young Welsh girl who saved and saved for a Bible, and when she finally had the funds she needed, she walked 26 miles to buy one (just a heads up that is 42 kilometers – a literal marathon!). So, after a long arduous trek barefoot through the countryside, Mary arrived at the house of the clergyman Thomas Charles to make her purchase... only to discover there were no Bibles left! She burst into tears. Her heart was broken, because she could not buy her own Bible. Do not worry though, the story does not end there! There is a happily ever after! Mary ended up with a Bible (one set aside for purchase by someone else, but a Bible nonetheless). And God used this interaction in the push for more Bible translations! What a beautiful chain of events. Now, as we contemplated this story at home, Pop asked a question I would like to pose to you: How many Bibles do you have? Most of us probably have a few Bibles, either from our school days or due to the changing translations within our churches. And that does not even take into account the access we have through the internet! But with all this access, all these Bibles... do you ever desire to read Scripture like Mary? Satan knows the Word has power. Saving power (John 5:24; 1 Cor. 1:18; Rom. 1:16). So any time you even think about opening the Bible, you may well find yourself faced with temptations and distractions placed there by the devil, the world, or simply your own sinful flesh. Suddenly there is something else that requires your immediate attention, or there is a notification on your phone, or you just do not feel like it. And once the first battle has been waged and won and your Bible is open... the spiritual war resumes! You are once again distracted, or start skim-reading, or your brain just goes numb. The sad, unspoken truth is that many people find the Bible boring. The length and strength of our attention span has been weakened by our dependence on external stimuli. The overconsumption of short and shallow content through social media has decreased our capacity to focus. Therefore, in a world with so many easy options to amuse or distract our minds, we all have to learn to be fed by the Bible. So, how can we do this? How can we make sure we are truly listening when we hear the Bible all the time? How can we make sure we are still looking for God’s Word when it is right in front of us? John Ortberg had a few suggestions for improving our engagement with the Scriptures, and I would like to share them with you. 1. Read with expectancy Sometimes people bring energy to a gathering. Sometimes they just show up. Consider this: when you spend time in the Word of God, you get to spend time with the God of the Word (James 4:8; Jer. 29:13). If I really understand that, then when I open up my Bible, I do not just “show up.” My mind is awake. I am building my relationship with my Father. It is His turn to talk. I am expectantly waiting to hear what He has to say! 2. Read with an active mind Satan loves to paint a mental glaze over the familiar words of the Bible. So break through it! Use your critical thinking, voice your musings, and ask questions! Read the way you watch a movie. Nobody “tries harder” to watch a movie, but everybody is engaged. Everyone has something to say. However, when it comes to the Bible, the conversations become stilted. People are so concerned with making sure they get the “right” answer, that everyone backs out. The good-natured revealing of different perspectives creates much more learning than just anxiously filling in the blanks with the right answers. 3. Memorize the Word I can’t emphasize how much I believe in hiding God’s Word in your heart (Ps. 119:11). I know it can sound hard, or tedious, or time-consuming, but you can start small! Just start! The words we carry in our minds are available to transform any moment. Memorize the encouragements or warnings that you need most. When God’s Word pushes out lies and resides within us, we will reach for truth, and it will be ours to have. 4. Don’t just read. Do something! It is easier to be smart than to be good. In all our love of debating what we need to do, sometimes we just need to do what we already know (James 1:22)! Practice loving a difficult person (Luke 6:27-29; Col. 3:12-14). Give away some money (Deut. 15:10-11; 2 Cor. 9:7). Be patient with your siblings (1 John 3:16-18; Ps. 133:1; Eph. 4:31-32). Respect your parents (Deut. 5:16; Ex. 20:12). Confess your sins (James 5:16; 1 John 1:9-10; Prov. 28:13). Trust God’s plan (Ps. 37:3-5; Rom. 8:28; Prov. 3:5-6; Matt. 6:25-34). Now I cannot promise this is the perfect recipe for engaging with the Scriptures. Reading God’s Word is part of a relationship we cannot build on our own. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work within you, daily transforming your heart and your desires. If you truly love God, then His Word will never be boring. I’ll leave you with a short text to hide in your heart. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:1-2). A version of this article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of “Contender, the FRCA Youth Magazine” under the title “Boring Bible” and it is reprinted here with permission....

News

Saturday Selections – Aug. 2, 2025

Josiah Queen's Dusty Bibles As a tribute to everyone who participated in RP's just-complete screen-fast challenge, Josiah Queen's newest. Lunar tales: what's going on here? Even kids are confronted with conflict between what the world says about our origins and what God says. "What’s going on here?" That was the question a perplexed fifth grader asked me during a recent church service. She’d been learning about the Moon in her public school science class — and was confused. What she heard in class didn’t align with what I had recently presented to the church...." WiFi companies can track movements in your house In George Orwell's 1984, citizens are monitored in their own homes via a "telescreen" that brings new into the house – the government-approved news – but more importantly, allows them to look through it at you. Today, we're not far off of this same 24/7 oversight. We live in a world where our online presence is being monitored by tech companies, and even the US government's NSA (as whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed back in 2013). And, now it turns out, you can be monitored when you are offline, in your own house... as a security feature. As one person tweeted: "it blows my mind how many conspiracy theories turn out to be true." We are all late bloomers It can be downright depressing to think of all we could have done and accomplished for the glory of our Lord, if only we hadn't been so slow to respond, or so quick to turn to sin. It's depressing because there is no denying the truth of it. But God forgives. And He most certainly can be glorified too, by us late bloomers. How Jacob Arminius effectively said no one would be saved If you sinned right before you died, you would then be dying unrepentant of that sin. So... would your unrepentant sin send you to hell? Is God's grace dependent on you repenting of every sin? Christless conservatism saves no one Matt Walsh, Donald Trump, and to a more limited extent, Pierre Poilievre have made the case that guys in dresses aren't girls. But... so what? Tearing down one lie without pointing people to the Truth they can actually stand on only leaves them falling for the next lie. The world needs God, which means the world needs God's people to speak as God's people. ...

News

Supreme Court of Canada upholds prostitution law

In an important decision that didn’t get covered by the mainstream media this July, Canada’s highest court made a unanimous decision to uphold key parts of the country’s prostitution laws. The law, passed in 2014, went after the Johns rather than the prostitutes, making it illegal to purchase sex, but not penalizing the selling of it. Why? The goal was to reduce the demand for prostitution while making it possible for those trapped in prostitution to leave without prosecution. Mikhail Kloubakov and Hicham Moustaine worked as drivers for a sex-trafficking business and were charged under sections of the prostitution law relating to procuring people for prostitution and benefitting from the prostitution of others. They appealed this all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and also asking the court to declare the entire law to be unconstitutional, which could have left Canada with no restrictions on prostitution. ARPA Canada teamed up with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) in a joint intervention before the court, arguing that the law be maintained to uphold human dignity and equality, and to expose the harm that results from commodifying sexual intimacy. Lia Milousis, a lawyer who worked on behalf of the EFC and alongside ARPA’s lawyer John Sikkema, expressed gratitude for the decision. As she noted in The Acacia Arc newsletter, “The Court notes that Parliament views profiting from the commodification of another human being’s sexual activity as inherently involving exploitation…. It deferred to Parliament, which I would say and the EFC and ARPA argued, is the correct approach.” The law is also being challenged separately in an Ontario case, which ARPA is also intervening in....

Adult non-fiction, Book Reviews

8 Errors Parents Make and How to Avoid Them

by Michael Brock 2024 / 224 pages Climbing the ladder out of the tranquil waters of Middleton beach, my ears were assaulted by an angry rant. A mother was giving her son a verbal lashing right there on the pontoon deck. The issue, I could not help but learning, was the misuse of some borrowed snorkeling equipment. But the incident was apparently indicative of what a completely useless boy he was in general. “Give me a break, lady. Do you really think your caustic belittling is helping? What chance does this kid have of growing up into a confident, well-adjusted adult? Listen to yourself!” Now I didn’t say any of that aloud. I dove back in and swam to the jetty. But it got me thinking. What does my parenting sound like? Renae and I were reading the recently published 8 Errors Parents Make and How to Avoid Them by Michael Brock. When a friend recommended it, I had raised my eyebrows at the word “Error” in the title. Couldn’t he have titled it, “8 Principles”? Put it in the positive. Give us a bit of encouragement here. But I’ve read the book (twice). “Errors” is the right word. You could even say “Sins.” The book is concise, but incisive and biblical. Nothing new Author Michael Brock opens by admitting that he’s not giving anything new here. In his introduction, he cites some of the materials he and his wife have benefited from. These include a lot of the titles we read earlier in our parenting career: Douglas Wilson, Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, the Tripp brothers (Paul and Ted). But Brock’s contribution is that he nicely balances the explanation of biblical principles with specific practical application. He’s not afraid to describe what this can look like in practice. He acknowledges that other parents have raised godly kids, doing things differently. He’s not saying that if you don’t raise your child as he counsels, you are guaranteed a rebellious child. But he is saying there are clear biblical principles that must be applied by everyone. We ignore them to our peril. Parenting begins with parents For example, the first error is “Shifting the blame.” We like to spread around the blame when things go wrong. One of his mantras is that “parenting begins with parents.” If you are an angry person, your children will likely be angry. If you are a lazy person, your children will likely be lazy. If you are a joyful person, your children will probably be joyful. For sure, there are exceptions. Prodigal sons and daughters break the hearts of their godly parents. But still, parents need to recognize that their training has a massive impact. They have received both authority and a call to train their children. Now, this might not sound like good news, but it is. Because when we see we are shifting the blame, there is grace and power to change. For example, Brock emphasizes that you need to pray with your kids. Not just prayers at mealtimes but meaningfully bringing your needs and theirs before the throne of grace, through the ups and downs of life. You might say, “I’m not good at that. I’ve never done that.” Well, you must learn. With the help of the Lord and His people, you can. When the stakes are low The book has a chapter on each stage of child development: toddler through to teenager. He advises parents to be strict and teach obedience when children are young, so that they can loosen up and give more independence when they are older. Otherwise, older children get frustrated. But many parents do it the other way around. They smile at the foibles and rebellion of their toddler. Tantrums are kind of cute in a one-year-old. But later on, it’s not so cute, and then parents try to rein things in. But sin is sin, even in the young. So, discipline when the stakes are low (“Eat your broccoli”) so that later they will listen when the stakes are higher (“Don’t date that guy”). What does that discipline look like? Our culture has all but lost an understanding of what a loving spanking looks like. Brock gives clear step-by-step guidance on what discipline looks like as the child matures (here he riffs on Ted Tripp’s book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart). Without proper discipline, parents must resort to controlling their young children by berating them. The tirade I heard on the Middleton beach pontoon was much more painful than a couple of paddy whacks. Joy and laughter You may be getting the impression that this book will turn your home into the VonTrapp residence (pre- Maria). But far from it. Brock paints a picture of how beautiful and fun a Christian family is. It is not a dour, unpleasant place. It can be full of more laughter and joy than you can imagine. And children who are disciplined and trained when they are young can grow to be your lifelong friends as adults. Was there anything I didn’t like? Anything unbiblical? I wondered whether by emphasizing the responsibility of the parent to train, Brock might miss the grace and sovereignty of God. When a child grows up to love and serve the Lord, that is the result of a miracle of God’s grace. We can’t take credit for it. But Brock affirms that too. There are no perfect parents. God uses us through our weaknesses. Parents are responsible to do their best and then trust the results to the Lord. The solution to regret Brock describes the day his daughter left for college. His heart was full of regrets. “I should have spent more one-on-one time with her. I have not taught her the best ways to have personal devotions. Etc....” When we are overcome with a feeling of failure, the solution is not to get defensive. It is not to try to remind ourselves of the good things that we’ve done. The solution is to confess our weakness and sin to the Lord. And then to trust that there is grace and forgiveness in Christ. And rest in that grace. God uses us in our weakness. We can trust that by His power we (and they) can grow. While reading the book for the first time, I found myself regularly stopping to repent and pray. I’d recommend Brock’s book to new and experienced parents. You might wince at times. But that’s good. It’s the clear, biblical, practical instruction that parents need. Rev. Arend Witten in the pastor of the Free Reformed Church of Baldivis. This is reprinted with permission from the June 2025 issue of “Una Sancta.”...

Book Reviews, Children’s fiction

Akimbo and the Lions

by Alexander McCall Smith 1992 / 66 pages Alexander McCall Smith is best known as the author of the The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency but it turn...

RP's 2025 Summer Photo Contest: Double the fun; two challenges in one!

News

Saturday Selections – July 19, 2025

One man band This is an amazing performance – one guy sounding like a whole band – on quite the machine! "Scottie Scheffler's take on succes...

Animated, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

The George Müller Story

Animated / Biography / Drama 2019 / 30 minutes Rating: 8/10 In his day, I'd imagine George Müller (1805-1898) was accused of being irresponsible...

RP’s 10-day screen-fast challenge is going nationwide July 21-30

If you want to register for the July 21-30 nationwide challenge click here. If you want to learn more about why you should consider it, including some tips on how to go screen-free for 10 days, read on! ***** How many times are you scrolling on your phone or tablet each day? Do you have any idea? What pulls in your children most: books, games, physical activity, or a screen? Christian homes, including seniors, aren’t immune from the addictive nature of screens. Although screens and digital technology can be a great blessing, we have a very hard time keeping them in their proper place. But we want what should be our priorities – family, friends, and faith – to remain our priorities, don’t we? So enough talk. It’s time to act! The challenge Are you, or is your family, willing to go 10 days without screens and/or social media? Do you have the ability to function without them? It is one thing to say so, and another to do it. A 10-day social media and screen fast will open your eyes to the power that our devices have on our lives, and on our family’s lives. It will provide a window of time to experience what life is like without them. This break can also provide a fresh opportunity to very deliberately decide how you and your family will utilize these devices moving forward. It may be fun to invite another person or family to do this with you. If you are willing to give this a try, encourage your friends, care group, or others to do the same. Nationwide July 21-30 You can start any time you like, and there's no better time than now. But we're also trying to generate some positive peer pressure by having a nation-wide screen-free challenge for July 21-30. We can all do this together at the same time! Some generous supporters have recognized how important this issue is, so for the July challenge they are offering up a little extra motivation for us all. They have pledged to donate $10 per day for every day you manage to go screen from from July 21-30. The money will be split between two fantastic kingdom causes – Reformed Perspective and Word & Deed – to a maximum of $20,000 split between both causes. Go all 10 days, and that'll be $100 donated. Go just 8, and it will still be $80. If you manage just 1 or 2 days that will still be $10 or $20 donated... and a hard lesson learned on dependency. How long can you go? If you don't think you can, isn't that the best reason to try? A few tips Commit. Don’t allow yourself to make easy exceptions, even if you are having a hard day. For example, just because you are at someone else’s home doesn’t mean you can enjoy screens again. If your fast includes screens, but you still need screens for basic functions that are essential, ensure that you are only using your tablet and phone for those functions. For example, if you need a phone for directions, don’t take the opportunity to scroll the news. If you need a computer at work, or to write a report for a committee you are on, don’t let yourself go to other websites or play an online game. Turn your devices off and hide them. Take the TV off the wall. Make them difficult to access. Log out of your social media accounts so that it isn’t easy to open them. Move the icons of your apps so that the social media apps (including YouTube) are hidden. Come up with a plan: whenever you find yourself wanting to reach for a screen or open your social media, what will you do instead? It doesn’t have to be hard. Perhaps say a prayer, take a drink of water, try to memorize a verse (keep some verses on a piece of paper in your pocket), do a set of 10 jumping jacks, or read a couple of pages of a book you’ve been meaning to get to. Have alternatives waiting and ready for you and your children: books, magazines, art supplies, a soccer ball, a walk to the park, etc. Invite accountability: let loved ones know what you are doing, and ask them to check in on you regularly to see how it is going. Tell them not to let you off the hook! Don’t read this and conclude a screen-fast challenge is only important for youth or young adults. Be sure to check out our article "What can I do anyways? 35 screen-free alternatives." You can register for the July 21-30 nationwide challenge here. The results We would love to hear how this goes for you and what impact it had on you and your family. Please send the editor a note. Or send us a good ol’ fashioned letter via Reformed Perspective Box 3609 Smithers, BC V0J 2N0 We look forward to hearing from y’all, and sharing the results!...

Book lists, Book Reviews

50 "Great Books"

What are the "Great Books"? There is no one list, but the term is meant to describe a compilation of classics from Western Literature. Some lists are very long, topping hundreds of books, while others limit themselves to as little as 50, but the idea behind all of them is that these are foundational books – read these and you will have a better understanding of some of the key ideas shaping the world today. A Christian list would look different than a non-Christian, though a Christian list should contain non-Christian books. Placement is as much or more about a book’s influence as it is about its genuine insight, so pivotal infamous books do make their appearances. So what exactly might be on such a list? Here is an example: The Unaborted Socrates by Peter Kreeft The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul Macbeth by Shakespeare Beowulf The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom The Heidelberg Catechism Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton Time Will Run Back by Henry Hazlitt The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther The Epic of Gilgamesh Divine Comedy by Dante The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien Animal Farm by George Orwell The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Christianity and Liberalism by John Gresham Machen Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Lord of the Flies by William Golding Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer Desiring God by John Piper Aesop’s Fables by, well, Aesop Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie City of God by Augustine Here I Stand by Roland Bainton The Prince by Machiavelli 1984 by George Orwell Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 95 Theses by Martin Luther Knowing God by J.I. Packer The Brothers Karamazov by Fydor Dostoevsky The Giver by Lois Lowry The Republic by Plato The Koran by Mohammad The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Odyssey by Homer Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe The Westminster Confession of Faith Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt Hamlet by Shakespeare A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift Ivanhoe by Walter Scott Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin ...

Economics

On why freer trade is best

The following is based on Real Talk’s episode #126, “Mere Economics and the Issue of Tariffs,” with host Lucas Holtvlüwer talking to economics professor and author Dr. Caleb Fuller about the only four ways that people can get the things they need. **** We might not be medical experts, or have a law degree, but we all know a lawyer, and a nurse or two. But how many of us know an economist? Not too many, and I think that's why economics can seem an intimidating field. But it doesn't have to be complicated. When it comes to how we can best get the things that we want and need for ourselves and our families, Dr. Fuller boiled things down: “…there's only actually four possible ways for me to get what I want. And these four ways are logically exhaustive.” What he means by "logically exhaustive" is that these four are it – there are no other possibilities. So what are these four ways? And more importantly, why should we know? To answer the second question first, this is vital information because only one of the four ways will actually work for a society. So it is key we pick the right way. 1. Getting gifts One way we could get the food, clothing, and shelter we need is to simply receive it from someone else. That’s what we do for our kids, after all. But there is a problem, as Dr. Fuller explains: “I could rely on gifts from someone else. But if you think about that for a couple seconds, you realize that if everyone was doing this – if you kind of systematized that way of getting what you want – the world would be incredibly poor. It also pushes the question back a step. You know, where did the gift-giver get what he's giving?” 2. Stealing what we want and need A second option is chosen by some, but we’d all starve if everyone did the same. “You could steal from others. Ethical problems aside, if you universalize that means of getting what you want, you also live in a world ‘nasty, brutish, and short,’ to quote Thomas Hobbes. And, also, just like the first option pushes the question back, where did the person who's being stolen from…get the goods in question?” 3. Making it all ourselves So, that leaves us only two more possibilities. We can either make everything we need ourselves, or, instead, use our particular skills to make something others want, and trade with them for what we want. So, our options are make or trade, and one of the reasons President Trump instituted his tariffs is he wanted less trade with other countries, and more of the making done in the US. Dr. Fuller highlights the problem with this approach. “Let's think about make for a second. There's a great book called The Toaster Project by a guy named Thomas Thwaites. Thwaites chronicles his attempt to build a very simple toaster from scratch, that is, without cooperating with anyone else. So he's not going to engage in buying, he's not going to engage in exchange, he's just going to make, okay? “And it takes him about nine months. He does cheat a little bit along the way. And after this nine months of full-time work on this toaster, he plugs the toaster in, and five seconds later it shorts out. “There's a small fire that melts it down. After nine months of work, that was the consequence. And that is a little vignette of what our lives would be if we systematized or universalized this third means of getting what we want – just making everything that I want to consume.” 4. Specializing/trading And as Fuller shares, that “brings us to this fourth option, of specialization.” Few of us will be any better at making toasters than Thwaites was, but we might have other skills we can offer. One person might be a great nurse, another a very good farmer, and a third might be a skilled high school teacher. We all have our specialties, and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to recognize how much worse off we’d be if we didn’t specialize. Then the nurse would have to build her home, the farmer would have to teach his kids high school physics, and the teacher would have to fix his son’s broken leg. Specialization helps us do and make more. Dr. Fuller specializes as an economics professor producing lectures and books that others value, and he trades those away for money and then uses that money to buy what he wants. “That's why I say that the ability to exchange is not optional if you want to observe ‘mass flourishing,’ to use economist Ed Phelps’ term. And so that's why economists are so obsessed with specialization…” Conclusion Of these four ways of getting what we need, God’s commandment against stealing rules out the second. His call to be fruitful (Gen. 1:28 and in the Parable of the Talents, Matt. 25:14-30) eliminates the first as an option – we can’t just live off of our parents, even if they were willing. A fruitful life would also address the third option. It doesn’t make sense for us to try to do everything ourselves. If everyone did, we’d all be not simply poor, but quite likely dead. What’s true for individuals is true in large part for countries too. The US is currently trying to use tariffs on foreign goods to drive companies to produce in-country more of the goods that Americans consume. But even the US can’t be better than everyone at producing everything. So, for example, in a June 3rd House Appropriations meeting, Rep. Madeleine Dean questioned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about the tariff being imposed on bananas. The US grows less than a tenth of one percent of the bananas that Americans eat. The other 99.9% are imported. And, as Secretary Lutnick noted, the tariff is “generally 10%.” Lutnick defended the tariff, arguing that, as trade deals are made, the tariffs will eventually be eliminated. But he also argued that “if you build in America and produce your product in America, there will be no tariff.” To which Rep. Dean pointed out, “You can’t build bananas in America.” Free trade remains best, and not simply for banana lovers. ...

News

Saturday Selections – July 12, 2025

Josiah Queen's "A Garden in Manhattan" On the crowded streets, all the people that I see Want them to know the Jesus that I know If I'm the closest thing to a Bible that they read Let the words they read be what You wrote Father, help me to go I'll be a garden in Manhattan, be a river where it's dry When my friends can't find the road, I'll be a roadside welcome sign Sunshine in Seattle, be a cool breeze in July Light in the darkness I'll be a garden, a garden in Manhattan Florida after dark, I know it ain't quite Central Park There's souls in my hometown You wanna reach Oh, God, use me where You have me... Climate hypocrisy tells us what the elites really believe When global warming proponents like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos all jet off to an exotic locale to celebrate a wedding, you can know they aren't really worried about CO2 hurting the planet... or they wouldn't fly a hundred jets to a party. And as this article explains, EV cars are another hypocrisy gauge. They might make sense in some instances, but if they are being pushed whether they help lower CO2 emissions or not, then you know this is about show, not substance. As Bjorn Lomborg writes: "In some parts of the world, like India, so much of the power comes from coal that electric cars end up emitting more CO₂ than gasoline cars...." Now, to be fair, Lomborg himself is worried about global warming. But, as he highlights, the actions most governments take are not what would be needed to solve the issue if it did exist. Parks Canada staff privately doubted Kamloops "graves" claim “$12M spent by @GcIndigenous to find purported 215 children's graves at Indian Residential School was instead spent on publicists & consultants with no graves found to date...” The legacy media is betraying Canada (10 min. read) Soviet Union President Nikita Khrushchev is credited with saying, "The press is our chief ideological weapon." In contrast, US President George H.W. Bush is said to have said, "We need an independent media to hold people like me to account.” The dictator wanted to own the press so the government could use it to direct public opinion, while the US president touted the need for a press independent of government so it could hold those in power to account. Our Canadian government spends massive amounts of money funding the country's largest media outlets, and these outlets not only don't denounce the proposition, but take the money. That tells you a lot about which direction our media is heading. While readers likely won't mind this article's anti-Liberal Party bias, some might be put off by just how loud it is. But read it anyways for the money trail. The Scopes Monkey Trial is 100 years old! In 1925, a Dayton, Tennessee high school teacher named John Scopes was put on trial for violating a state law that forbade teaching evolution. The case made big news then – across both the US and into Canada – and made big news again in 1960 when a movie version called Inherit the Wind was made, which portrayed the town of Dayton as a bunch of creationist hicks who wanted to storm the jail to get Scopes. That film was then shown in classrooms across the US for generations, convincing many students that only idiots like those onscreen could ever believe Genesis is literal. But the truth is, the whole town was in on it – they challenged the law to get some attention for their hometown, and recruited Scopes, who agreed to be charged, and in an ironic twist, he probably never even taught evolution in his classroom. In another ironic twist, as this article lays out, much of the scientific evidence marshaled for evolution during the trial has been overturned since (ex. vestigial organs, similar embryonic development). So, even if it had been a bunch of dumb hicks, dumb hicks siding with God are a lot smarter than a gaggle of reporters and scientists siding against Him. Is Trump doing good or is he doing bad? Yes. Jeffrey Epstein was a sex trafficker with ties to many of the most powerful people in the world. This, then, was a man who could name names, and topple empires... and then he died mysteriously in his jail cell – a purported suicide but one that happened when his cell's video cameras were broken. The country's reaction was telling. No one was buying the coincidence. This past week, Epstein's client list was supposed to be released and the news now is that there was no client list. As the video below details, this has a lot of conservatives, Christians among them, feeling crushed. They don't believe it, and want to know where the justice is. Part of the disappointment comes from the tendency we have of making politicians our dividing lines. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were monsters... so we should love Trump? That doesn't follow. Canadian prime ministers Trudeau and Carney have a litany of sins, most recently trying to push murder as a treatment for mental illness. But does that mean we have to look past the shortcomings of Pierre Poilievre? Christians don't have to. Our dividing line is not a Trudeau or Trump, because our unswerving loyalty lies only with God (Josh. 5:13-14). So, yes, Trump continues to stand strong against gender nonsense, but the missing Epstein list has people wondering if the swamp can ever be drained, and as Mindy Belz (sister-in-law of WORLD magazine founder Joel Belz) highlights, his results-now approach has undercut processes that protect everyone from government overreach. ...

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Supreme Court of Canada upholds prostitution law

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Akimbo and the Lions

RP's 2025 Summer Photo Contest: Double the fun; two challenges in one!

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Saturday Selections – July 19, 2025

Animated, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

The George Müller Story

RP’s 10-day screen-fast challenge is going nationwide July 21-30

Book lists, Book Reviews

50 "Great Books"

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On why freer trade is best

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Saturday Selections – July 12, 2025