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NewsGenetically-engineered babies have now been born
Human experimentation has been happening around the world for the past four decades, with research scientists actively carrying out experiments on human embryos. The stated…
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MagazineNov/Dec 2018 issue
WHAT’S INSIDE: World War II through the eyes of a child / Parenting our parents / Reagan’s challenge to his dying atheist father-in-law / I…
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AssortedWhen should we unwrap presents?
Should we open our presents on Christmas Day? No one asked this question during the panel discussion at the 2016 Always Reforming Conference, but two…
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Adult non-fictionBeating the college debt trap
Getting a degree without going broke by Alex Chediak 212 pages / 2015 In Canada, the average student debt among university graduates is now more…
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NewsSaturday Selections – December 8, 2018
Christian professor pressured to call male student by female pronouns The professor agreed to avoid using pronouns altogether and just use the student’s last name, but…
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Adult biographiesi am n
Inspiring Stories of Christians Facing Islamic Extremists by the Voice of the Martyrs 293 pages / 2016 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give The “n” in the title is…
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AssortedBeyond Monopoly – They’ve taken the bored out of board games
When it comes to traditional board games the joke about bored games holds a certain amount of truth. Everyone knows that Risk is usually won…
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NewsWhat’s in a name? Payless prank had people paying $600 for their shoes
Payless sells their shoes for as low as $20. So why were people paying $200, $400, and even $600 for their shoes a month before Christmas?…
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News
Saturday Selections – Dec. 1, 2018
The lowly dandelion is way cooler than we knew Scientists have discovered that dandelions use a never-before-discovered means of flight. Parents, discipline is not about…
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NewsBacking away from Big Brother: government overreach doesn’t just happen in China
Who should get to decide what information you see? And who would you trust with your own personal information? On the other side of the…
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In a NutshellTidbits – December 2018
Feminism’s two errors “[Feminism is] the heresy that women and men are not fundamentally different and that women ought to be as much like men…
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AssortedWax on, wax off: the world’s increasingly shaky understanding of tolerance
A man who says he is a woman is using the BC Human Rights Tribunal to make life difficult for Vancouver-area estheticians. “JY” (the Tribunal…
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TheologyWhom Do You Serve? Sphere Sovereignty and the need for limits on power
Children are often told to obey many different folks. Listen to your mom and dad. Listen to the policeman. Listen to your teacher. Listen to…
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AssortedWhen we have to parent our parents: help and hope for caregivers
Paul pulled the car into the driveway. “Okay, Dad, now stay there and I’ll come around and help you out of the car.” “Okay.” Paul put…
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DatingI Survived “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”
Documentary 78 minutes / 2018 RATING: 8/10 Aug 3, 2019 UPDATE: This past month Josh Harris used his Instagram account to announce he was rejecting…
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Adult non-fictionTwo on depression and joy
SPURGEON’S SORROWS: Realistic hope for those who suffer from depression by Zack Eswine 144 pages / 2014 Drawing on over eighty sermons by C. H….
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Pro-life – FosteringOur modern Underground Railroad: a case for foster care
Nestled in the sagging seat of her dad’s gigantic green recliner sits a freckled faced 12-year-old girl, with a book almost touching her nose, legs…
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News
Saturday Selections – Nov. 17, 2018
Canadian doctors get ready for child euthanasia Doctors and bioethicists associated with the children’s hospital in Toronto are pushing to be “allowed to euthanize ‘capable minors’… without…
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ParentingThe Golden Rule: the biblical response to self-pity
Sin is devastating. An eight-year-old tries to be kind to his older sister. She responds with, “That was stupid!” Michael is crushed. He tried so hard to…
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AssortedLiving out Lord’s Day 1: a Cuban story
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you…
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Remembrance DayForgive me!
The waiting room was full. I pulled a number – 135. I just knew it would be a long wait. Next to me sat a…
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Book lists5 books to help us never forget
Next week will mark Remembrance Day, and to help us remember these men and women – many in uniform, and also many who were not –…
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AnimatedSgt. Stubby: an unlikely hero
Animated / Family 2018 / 84 minutes Rating: 8/10 I read a review by a parent who arrived at the movie theater with his four-year-old…
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Remembrance DayWhy we remember
My grandfather was active in the Dutch resistance movement against Nazism and you can read more about him in my article “Prayers and Comfort in Sachsenhausen.”…
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TheologyBAPTISM DEBATE: Credo vs. Paedo
On Sept. 27 two Reformed pastors debated “SHOULD WE BAPTIZE INFANTS AS WELL AS ADULTS?” The edited version of this video is now available to…
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News
Saturday Selections – Nov. 3, 2018
Do you read the Bible literally? Stand to Reason‘s Greg Koukl on how reading the Bible literally isn’t the same as reading it woodenly (10-minute…
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Daily devotionalThursday November 1 – The big picture (1): Jesus on the road to Emmaus
This month we will be asking and answering the question of our mission as the church of Jesus Christ. Why do we exist as churches?…
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In a NutshellTidbits – November 2018
Lame Dutch joke of the month A Canadian and a Dutchman were out riding horses. Canadian: “We’ve got quite the set of fine horses here….
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SatireFirst transage winner of under-10s race
A 27-year-old man from Great Britain, who identifies as an 8-year-old boy, has become the first Transage winner of a gold medal at the World…
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Book excerptsThe Reformation comes to Strasbourg
This past year we celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and with the focus on Luther, but also other big names like Calvin, Knox…
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InternetCharles Spurgeon with some advice for the Internet age
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) died a century before Mankind mastered the ability to pass along unverified news stories and unfounded rumors at the speed of light….
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News
Saturday Selections – Oct. 27, 2018
Should prostitution be legal? An important one to watch….but not with the kids around What happy teens do By one measure, a third of teens…
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NewsScottish minister charges police with hate for their hate crime campaign
The Scottish government and Scottish police have joined together under the banner “One Scotland” to campaign against hate crimes using videos and a variety of billboards….
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Adult biographiesThe Hiding Place
by Corrie Ten Boom 1971 / 225 pages Rating: Good/Great/GIFT This was such an encouraging story, and in so many ways. If you know only…
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Pro-life – EuthanasiaThey shoot horses, don’t they?
If the stress of euthanizing animals drives some vets to suicide, what will happen to euthanasia doctors? **** Every year, about 1.5 million cases of…
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NewsReagan’s challenge to his dying atheist father-in-law
Earlier this year a note was discovered in Nancy Reagan’s personal effects – dated August 7, 1982 – written by Ronald Reagan to his father-in-law. What…
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News
Saturday Selections – Oct. 20, 2018
How our sun and atmosphere show evidence of being Intelligently-designed (3 minutes) A different take on pro-abortion bully Jordan Hunter When Jordan Hunter kicked pro-life protester…
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MagazineSept/Oct 2018 issue
WHAT’S INSIDE: C.S. Lewis on real happiness / A most important question: What is Man? / How bad is the teen anxiety epidemic? / Blame…
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Adult non-fictionChrist’s Psalms, Our Psalms
edited by Rev. Peter H. Holtvluwer 383 pages / 2018 The Psalms are a rich treasure for God’s people: so many inspired words of comfort,…
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NewsWoman identifies as a man who identifies as a dog
Any journalist knows there’s nothing newsworthy about a dog biting a man, but when a man bites a dog then you have headline material! So…
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News
Saturday Selections – October 13, 2018
Conservative group confronts students with a smile and a $100 bill Campus Reform offered college students $100 to name just one time that conservatives shut…
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NewsNinja’s take on the “Billy Graham rule”
Tyler Blevins is known around the globe as “Ninja,” an online gamer making $500,000 a month by streaming his game play to his millions of…
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FamilySwallows and Amazons
Drama / Family 2016 / 96 minutes RATING: 7/10 I remember my older brother reading Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons to me when I was very young,…
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News
Saturday Selections – October 6, 2018
Alberta’s NDP says Christian school cannot state that God’s authority supersedes human authority If the idea that a Canadian provincial government would try this strikes…
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TheologyChoosing Evolution: Bad reasons for a big departure
How I Changed My Mind About Evolution is a recent book featuring 25 evangelical theologians and scientists, each taking a chapter to explain why they have…
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TheologyThe limits of the “two-books” metaphor
There is a metaphor, common among Christians, about how God has revealed Himself to us via “two books”: Scripture and the book of Nature. The…
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DocumentaryGOODBYE HOLLAND: The destruction of Dutch Jewry
Documentary 90 minutes / 2004 RATING: 8/10 I grew up reading Piet Prins’ Scout books and Anne DeVries’ Journey Through the Night, learning about the…
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In a NutshellTidbits – October 2018
How to be a revolutionary When a Christian conference is titled “How to enrage the culture” you might think it would be encouraging radical and…
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News
Saturday Selections – September 29, 2018
My big flaw: I am an impatient parent Being on time is a virtue. Taking it out on your kids when you’re not, isn’t. Thank-you…
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People we should knowEve: the mother of all living
“…she said: ‘God has appointed for me another child…’” – Genesis 4:25 How sad the reflections. Hunched down in front of her tent, she stared…
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Adult non-fictionBlame it on the Brain?
Blame it on the Brain?: Distinguishing chemical imbalances, brain disorders, and disobedience by Edward T. Welch 1998 / 208 pages A boy won’t sit still so…
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News
Saturday Selections – September 22, 2018
The myth of the ongoing papacy “If we believe the popular myth, we might think that there has been an unbroken succession of popes in…
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AssortedStepping into the story: Hamlet with a happy ending?
It all starts with an invitation from the Grade Twelve English teacher, Tom Van Swift, to come and enjoy the final field trip of the…
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AssortedA history of Healthcare…and why Christians have done it different
Within a short time span hospitals and medical care have greatly changed. In fact, today a man of seventy can justly claim that more medical…
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EconomicsWhat makes a salesman good?
I didn’t know too many salesmen while I was growing up, so my perception of them was shaped in large part by the jokes made…
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EconomicsWhat if selling could be a beautiful thing?
“I hate sales.” That phrase came up again and again while I was working with a group of Christian not-for-profit leaders. As we explored the…
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News
Saturday Selections – September 15, 2018
Mark Schultz on standing with, and praising God for, those who are devastated by grief In the first of these two videos Mark Schultz shares…
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Gender roles“Homemaking is the ultimate career” – C.S. Lewis (sort of)
There are some quotes so good you desperately wish they were real. This one below, often attributed to C.S. Lewis, isn’t authentic. But the point…
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Media biasOur dangerous diet of clips, tweets, memes, and headlines
We live in a 200-word blog post /140-character tweet /30-second YouTube clip /headline-reading kind of world. People read and watch more than ever, but with…
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Apologetics 101What is Man?
Three thousand years ago, an ancient sage gazed at the world and asked the most important question anyone could ask about our corporate humanity: When…
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Economics – Home FinancesCan you cut your grocery bill in half?
Is it possible? The title of Steve and Annette Ecomides’ book Cut your grocery bill in half really caught my attention. Who doesn’t like to…
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News
Saturday Selections – Sept. 8, 2018
Porcupine quills and a half dozen other examples of “Nature’s” foresight Porcupines are able to make it through the birth canal without harming their mother…
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ParentingIgnore your inner defense attorney!
My friend Paul Tripp writes that becoming our own defense attorney is a dangerous and destructive practice. In less formal language Paul is warning about becoming…
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Pro-life – AbortionDIRECTION MATTERS: the difference between legal, decriminalized, and regulated abortion, & why we support gestational limits
It has been 30 years now since the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s last abortion law in their R. v. Morgentaler decision (1988). Soon after,…
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Adult non-fictionMade in Heaven
by Ray Comfort 78 pages / 2012 This picture book isn’t a children’s book – we gave it to my mother-in-law for her birthday –…
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In a NutshellTidbits – September 2018
What parent wouldn’t love this present? One of the biggest, most expensive presents we will ever give our children is Christian schooling. But do our…
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News
Saturday Selections – September 1, 2018
Pet clones – on the edge of human cloning? and The IVF needle baby The folks at Breakpoint.org have consistently solid, thoroughly biblical, commentary on the…
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ParentingJust how bad is the teen anxiety epidemic?
Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed a significant increase in the number of people asking me for help with anxiety issues. While it…
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Pro-life – AbortionSTAY ON MESSAGE: a lesson from the Chilliwack pro-life flag display
When a politician gets ready to do a television interview he’ll have his staff prepare “talking points.” These are brief one or two line summaries…
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Adult non-fictionVisual theology for young and old
VISUAL THEOLOGY: Seeing and understanding the truth about God by Tim Challies and Josh Byers 2016 / 155 pages I’ve read and reviewed several systematic…
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AssortedYour RP connection for fun kid content!
What you’ll find here are crafts, coloring pages, a challenge or two, and even a prayer journal, all of them intended for your littles. These…
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SexualityWhy won’t safe-sex advocates advocate safe-sex?
A new strain of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s) are proving to be resistant to treatment. Here is an extract from a BBC report: “Doctors have…
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News
Saturday Selections – August 25, 2018
Colorado Civil Rights Commission is after Jack Phillips again! A baker, who had to take his case all the way to the Supreme Court to…
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SexualityThe world doesn’t always think “abstinence” is a four-letter word
Eric Metaxas wants to know why does the world think “abstinence” is a four-letter word when it comes to sex, but not when it comes…
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Book lists4 picture books mom and dad won’t mind reading
The Oxpecker and the Giraffe: I Need You and You Need Me by Patrick Fitzpatrick 32 pages / 3013 Giraffe is tired of his near-constant companion,…
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Adult non-fictionUndeniable: why doubting Darwin is a matter of common sense
There’s no shortage of books poking holes in evolution, but Douglas Axe’s Undeniable is something special – he explains why evolution isn’t merely wrong, but…
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HistoryThe rise and fall of Canada’s most effective opposition MP
It’s hard to conceive of any way that a Christian politician could, in today’s Canada, win a mandate to turn the country in a Christian…
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AssortedWhat are we to make of gambling?
And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses….
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Apologetics 101Disarming a name-caller by asking them to define their insult
Apologist Greg Koukl has a tactic he calls the “Columbo approach” which involves asking pointed questions to get a person to expose the holes in…
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MagazineJuly/Aug 2018 issue
WHAT’S INSIDE: Justin Trudeau and the need for two witnesses / What forgiveness is / Communism’s ongoing influence / On a wife leaving her husband…
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Science – GeneralDon’t push Dad into the pond (and don’t tell Mom about the bugs!)
Summer is here and there are any number of projects in which the whole family can participate. Of course, some are more fun that others…
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NewsAdam Ford wants you to bypass social media
Adam Ford was a wildly successful Christian cartoonist (Adam4d.com) before he mostly gave that up to start a wildly successful Christian satire site (BabylonBee.com) that…
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News
Saturday Selections – August 11, 2018
5 simple things you can do to raise kind kids This psychologist may or not may be Christian, but the suggestions he offers for modeling…
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NewsAlberta man says he is woman to save money on car insurance
When an Alberta man learned he would pay $1,100 less for car insurance if only he were a she, he saw a loophole he could…
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NewsCreationists: there’s more of us than we knew!
Being a Christian, even in the “Christian” West, can sometimes feel a little lonely, and doubly so if you are a 6-day creationist-type Christian. But,…
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NewsVenezuela’s inflation to hit 1 million percent?
An official with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is predicting that by the end of the year Venezuelan inflation will his 1,000,000 percent. What does…
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News
Saturday Selections – August 4, 2018
Parents: act, don’t react! This is an incredibly helpful piece of parenting advice on the topic of disciplining and spanking. When we react, we are…
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NewsWhy do more today feel like have-nots?
Back in 1988 a Pew Research poll of Americans found that a majority thought they were doing quite well, describing themselves as “haves.” Just 17%…
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PoliticsCommunism’s ongoing influence
The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and many thought that Communism was over and done with. But even today its influence can still be felt,…
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In a NutshellTidbits – August 2018
Help wanted: men “Imagine that in those ages past, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and their [associates] had said: ‘The world is out of order. But if…
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AssortedOn a wife deciding to leave her husband
Dear Janelle, I received your letter yesterday, and had already heard from your brother and sister-in-law. They confirmed for me the very difficult and challenging…
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News
Saturday Selections – July 28, 2018
How to help your daughter deal with mean girls Three tips on how to help your girls deal with – and not become – mean…
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Book excerpts7 quotes from “Learning Contentment”
An in depth review is in the works, but in the meantime, here’s a taste of Nancy Wilson’s wonderful and, more to the point, challenging…
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DramaThe man who shot Liberty Valance
Western 1962 / 123 minutes RATING: 8/10 What does it mean to be a man? In this classic Western, Hollywood offers up two answers. Tom…
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FamilyBorn free
Family / Drama 1966 / 95 minutes RATING: 8/10 When a man-eating lion has to be shot, and his mate too, three little cubs are…
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DramaThe Spirit of St. Louis
Family / Biography 1957 / 135 minutes RATING: 7/10 Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 flight wasn’t the first to cross the North Atlantic. That was accomplished 8…
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FamilyThe absent-minded professor
Family 1961 / 96 minutes RATING: 8/10 The classic begins with a bang – a lab accident blows up Ned Brainard’s garage and leaves the…
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Pro-life – AbortionShould all adoption records be unsealed? A pro-life perspective
Some years back the Costco Connection asked its readers: “Should it be mandatory to give adult adoptees full access to their birth records if they want…
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News
Saturday Selections – July 21, 2018
Differences between salvation in the Qur’an and the Bible Three key differences, including that the Qur’an teaches Jesus did not die on the cross. On…
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Church historyReport of a meeting which was never held
What I am going to tell you is pure fantasy, but it might be useful to pause a moment because it can teach us something….