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MagazineJan/Feb 2021 issue
WHAT’S INSIDE: Who is afraid of Proverbs 31? / Parenting: one set of guiding principles / The Great Reset: don’t let a crisis go to…
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NewsWhen Big Tech comes after anyone
In early January, when Facebook and Twitter suspended Donald Trump’s accounts it might not have worried most Christians. Yes, these “Big Tech” companies has just…
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NewsSaturday Selections – February 20, 2021
Organ harvesting and more in China (7 min) What China is doing in its various prisons and “re-education” camps is slowly coming out. But why…
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Culture ClashesThe Great Reset: don’t let a crisis go to waste
Over the past several months, the phrase The Great Reset has swirled around media headlines and social media. Many Christians are asking, should we support…
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Book excerptsFree book: How should Christians approach origins?
Blaise Pascal once quipped that he had written a long letter because he hadn’t had time to write a short one. Well, in this booklet…
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FamilyPatterns of Evidence: Young explorers
Docudrama 190 minutes / 2020 Rating: 7/10 This didn’t grab me on a first viewing but as I wasn’t the target audience, I thought I…
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In a NutshellTidbits – February 2021
Sign seen on a… Whatever your business, there’s a pun for you. Here are some signs that probably never were but definitely should be… IRS…
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Culture Clashes“Let’s meet in the middle”: the con in compromise
A new administration has taken over in the US, and President Joe Biden and friends are using a lot of conciliatory talk about unity, and…
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NewsSaturday Selections – February 13, 2021
Who was Saint Valentine? The ads might make this day seem to be mostly about earthly love, but the fellow it is named after gained…
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DocumentaryDismantled: a scientific deconstruction of the theory of evolution
Documentary 2020 / 93 minutes Rating: 8/10 The Creation vs. Evolution debate is sometimes portrayed as being the Bible vs. Science, but Dismantled wants us…
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Adult non-fictionRod Dreher’s “Live not by lies” – a review and a discussion
I recently spent several months leading a Facebook group discussion of Rod Dreher’s Live Not By Lies. Each week I would post a summary of…
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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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Book ReviewsIt goes without saying: Peanuts at its silent best
by Charles Schultz 2005 / 160 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift There seems something almost wrong with using a multitude of words to recommend a wordless book so…
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Letter WritingHow letters mingle souls
“Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls, For thus, friends absent speak. – John Donne (1572-1631) When my father courted my mother, he wrote her…
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NewsSaturday Selections – February 6, 2021
The jewels of winter (6 minutes) You might sort-of know how snowflakes are made, but how they are actually made is more amazing than you knew!…
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Apologetics 101I love apologetics
Don’t be intimidated; sharing the good news isn’t as complicated as we make it **** The Evidence Bible is filled with my favorite apologetical arguments. I…
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DocumentaryFacing darkness
Documentary 99 minutes / 2017 Rating 8/10 In early 2020, when New York was hit with a surge of serious Covid-19 cases, Samaritan’s Purse set…
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Book excerptsLive not by lies, in 7 quotes
In Live not by lies, Rod Dreher shares the warning he’s hearing from former emigrants from the Soviet Union and other Iron Curtain countries. They lived through…
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Book ReviewsFreiheit! The White Rose graphic novel
by Andrea Grosso Ciponte 110 pages / 2020 Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift I grew up reading stories about the Dutch resistance during World War II, and it was…
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NewsSaturday Selections – January 30, 2021
Should we erase income inequality? (5 minutes) Abraham was rich and Solomon too. So how should we respond when we’re “in a conversation and someone…
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ParentingIf you want to spank your child, don’t
The photo website I use for most of the pictures for Reformed Perspective has more than 24 million stock pictures, so no matter what the…
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TheologyFighting error in the Church
Sometimes it may seem that we spend too much time refuting falsehood. All of us are chagrined at the preponderance of error both within and…
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DocumentaryThe Marks of a Cult: a biblical analysis
Documentary 2005 / 115 minutes Rating: 8/10 How would you define a cult? Some think of them as being deadly, like the 900 followers of…
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Book excerpts10 QUOTES: On technology and the family
We need to control our technology; it can’t control us “…it is absolutely completely possible to make different choices about technology from the default settings…
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Adult biographiesThe hardest peace
Expecting grace in the midst of life’s hard by Kara Tippetts 2014 / 189 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give In this part biography, part devotional Kara wants…
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NewsSaturday Selections – January 23, 2021
The magical birth canal The state of things under Canadian law… How to enjoy wealth to the glory of God In 1 Tim 6:17-19, the…
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Science – Creation/EvolutionOur remarkable Sun
Evolutionists like to claim that our Sun is merely an average star, just one among billions. There’s no reason to believe our Sun is unusual…or…
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DocumentaryThe Free Speech Apocalypse
Documentary 89 minutes / 2015 Rating: 8/10 In 2012 Pastor Douglas Wilson gave a public lecture on the contentious topic of sexuality God’s way. But…
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Culture ClashesAnimal rights vs. animal welfare
If you think that a dog’s owner shouldn’t be allowed to beat it for fun, you might think you support animal rights. But Wesley Smith,…
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NewsSaturday Selections – January 16, 2021
Sea shanties go viral (7 min) If you have boys who think singing is girly, there’s a new viral trend of men singing manly. For…
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Culture ClashesWhat’s the best response to a wedding cake request?
What do you say to a homosexual couple who asks you to bake a cake for their wedding a month from now? That was the…
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Assorted“I’m fine”…and other lies we tell
In Canada, we aren’t confronted with Nazis at our doors demanding to know whether we’re hiding Jews. We aren’t faced with life and death dilemmas…
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In a NutshellTidbits – January 2021
Silent Cal speaks American president Calvin Coolidge was so close-lipped his nickname was “Silent Cal.” A popular joke told about him had an attractive young…
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Adult biographiesSaint Patrick
by Jonathan Rogers 2010 / 132 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give While legends about St. Patrick (385-461) abound, facts about this Irish saint are hard to come by….
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NewsSaturday Selections – January 9, 2021
It ain’t not possible to be more wronger For the English teachers out there… Snowflake adoption is wonderful, but it is not the solution “For…
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Christian educationWhy study History?
Things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the…
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Apologetics 101Pro-life 101: Removing the red herrings
RED HERRING: In argument, something designed to divert an opponent’s attention from the central issue. If a herring is dragged across a trail that hounds…
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DocumentaryLogic on Fire
Documentary 2015 / 102 minutes RATING: 7/10 Even if you don’t know Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones (1899-1981) you likely do know some of the people…
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Adult biographiesSaving my assassin
by Virginia Prodan 2016 pages / 336 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give How would you respond if you were staring down the barrel of a gun held…
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NewsSaturday Selections – January 2, 2021
Faster, faster! (5 min) Two friends race down a marble maze – it’s some innocent fun for the kids. These buddies also appear in “Don’t…
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Culture ClashesCan one culture be better than another?
Can one culture be better than another? We use to think so. We used to understand that Western values — those that are rooted in…
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In a NutshellTidbits – December 2020
A million monkeys “Someone once said that if you sat a million monkeys at a million typewriters for a million years, one of them would…
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DocumentaryMarch of the Penguins
Documentary 80 min / 2005 RATING: 7/10 Penguins are cute but tough as nails too, and March of the Penguins gives us the insider’s look at both…
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News5 most overlooked article of 2020
Last week we shared our 10 most popular posts of 2020, all of which got thousands of reads. In contrast, the readership for each of our…
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Adult biographiesWinston Churchill
by John Perry 158 pages / 2010 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Though the man himself has been gone 50 + years now, the myth is enjoying a revival….
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NewsSaturday Selections – December 26, 2020
Do college kids know the difference between men and women? (4 min) It takes a lot of education to get things this wrong (and this…
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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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DramaThe Song
Drama / Musical 2014 / 116 minutes RATING: 9/10 The Song destroys all the expectations we have for Christian films. It has great acting, a…
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News2020’s Top 10 articles
It’s not surprising that three of 2020’s top articles addressed the coronavirus and governments’ responses to it. But, in a blast from the past, C.S….
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AssortedThere’s an app for that!
Reformed Perspective‘s app can be downloaded for Apple and Android devices by clicking on the appropriate button below. Get it on your phone now to…
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NewsSaturday Selections – December 19, 2020
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is not a Christmas song (1 min) Like many a pop song, the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah are hard to decipher but…
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MagazineNov/Dec 2020 issue
WHAT’S INSIDE: A conversation on authority / Pro-lifers aren’t helping people after they’re born? / Jay Adams, father of modern biblical counseling, dies / Dutch make…
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DramaAlleged
Drama 93 minutes/ 2011 Rating: 7/10 The year is 1925, and Charlie Anderson’s goal is to quit his job, leave his hometown of Dayton, Tennessee…
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NewsA conversation on authority
It was the type of conversation that, in other circumstances, the two friends might have had at a quiet pub, over a couple of beers….
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NewsA great grandma 100 times over…and counting
In mid-October, 92-year-old Elizabeth Vreugdenhil got to meet her namesake Elizabeth Grim – this newborn was her 100th great-grandchild! Getting to hold her Canadian great-granddaughter was…
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Adult fictionThe Auschwitz Escape
by Joel C. Rosenberg 2014 / 461 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Joel Rosenberg is a fantastic writer, a New York Times best-seller, but his political thrillers…
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NewsSaturday Selections – December 12, 2020
John Piper and Tedashii on the need for Christians to make war Not everyone will love the musical genre, but it’s a good match to…
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ParentingWhy Reformed churches should be full of adopted children
When it comes to adoption rates, our Reformed churches aren’t unusual. While Canadian statistics are hard to come by, in the US it appears about 1%…
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Movie ReviewsIn His Image: Delighting in God’s Plan for Gender and Sexuality
Documentary 2020 / 104 minutes Rating: 8/10 One of the most serious challenges that the Christian church is currently facing is in the area of…
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ParentingHelping our children listen well
It will not come as a shock that in Christian schools too, students will be inattentive. Teachers, coaches, pastors, volunteers, and community instructors notice and…
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MusicMusic from the eyes
Growing up, my oldest brother Dave had a record player in the room he shared with my other brother Stephen. Dave was gone a lot…
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Book ReviewsThe Ology: Ancient Truths, Ever New
by Marty Machowski 224 pages / 2015 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give I am always on the lookout for good books for our Church library, local Christian school…
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NewsSaturday Selections – December 5, 2020
Living clouds (5 min) How do they do it? Thousands of starlings, flying at speeds of 50 miles per hour, moving in such precision together…
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News29-year-old mom gives birth to 27-year-old baby
It’s a headline that seems better suited to National Enquirer, but it gets crazier still. The 29-year-old mother, Tina Gibson, doesn’t have just one baby…
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NewsEquality found in the Bible, not on the football field
After COVID quarantines eliminated their other kickers, the Vanderbilt Commodores football team turned to Sarah Fuller. The starting goalkeeper for the university’s women’s soccer team,…
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AssortedThe Healing Touch
Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to…
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NewsThe Regulative Principle and church lockdowns
*** “All of Manitoba moves to CRITICAL (RED) on #restartMB pandemic response system” So declares a press statement from the Government of Manitoba. With those…
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NewsSaturday Selections – November 28, 2020
Lockdowns: if it saves one life? (3 min) It’s not simply lives vs. money. Some lives are being endangered by the lockdowns to the extent…
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Gender rolesMen and the Marriage Dance
Maybe I have been looking in all the wrong places, but in my ten years of being a Christian, I seem to have heard an…
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NewsDutch make it easier to kill patients with advanced dementia
Like many countries around the world, the Netherlands has been imposing shutdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19, a virus that is particularly dangerous to…
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AnimatedLost and Found
Animated / Family 24 minutes / 2013 Rating: 8/10 This short film made my girls cry and that’s okay. It is a classic boy meets…
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In a NutshellTidbits – November 2020
Famous phrases from the Bible The influence of God’s Word on our culture is such that even those who have never cracked open a Bible…
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Adult non-fictionThe legacy of 25 Scripture verses on Parliament Hill
by Lynette Bloedow 68 pages / 2020 Perched atop my “to be read” pile, this caught the eye of a visitor who sat down, started…
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NewsSaturday Selections – November 21, 2020
Can God make a square circle? (5 minutes) Apologist Tim Barnett offers his own great answer in the video below, and if you want a…
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Book excerptsThe Accompanist as Prophet?
The following is an excerpt from Dr. Bredenhof’s new book “Aiming to Please: A Guide to Reformed Worship.” ***** If we have accompaniment, the accompanist has an…
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EconomicsLove Gov: Breaking up with government is hard to do
Here’s something new: an economic argument for small government presented as a comedic drama. And Love Gov is a romance too, sort of. Alexis is…
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NewsJay Adams, father of modern biblical counseling movement, dies
Dr. Jay Edward Adams (1929-2020) died on Nov. 14 at the age of 91. For those who don’t already know his name, Adams could be…
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AssortedMODERATION: Where beer and psalm-singing go hand in hand
In his book God Gave Wine, Kenneth Gentry outlines the three positions Christians have has concerning alcohol consumption: PROHIBITION: it’s bad and the Scriptures forbid…
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NewsSaturday Selections – November 14, 2020
Flash mob singing Handel’s Messiah (5-min) We’re going back ten years to one of the first flash mob performances, with a chorus of 100 surprising…
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DramaThe Man in the Iron Mask
Drama 1939 / 112 minutes Rating: 6/10 Based loosely on the Alexander Dumas story of the same name, it takes place 20 years after Dumas’…
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Book excerptsArcher fish: a wonder of creation
This article is the first chapter from Dr. Jerry Bergman’s new book “Wonderful and Bizarre Life Forms in Creation” which you can order at Create.ab.ca. *****…
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ParentingRaising children who despise themselves
It seems like such a simple thing. You ask your child to do something and in response, he quietly keeps playing with his toy. If…
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NewsTwice a Sunday needs to happen!
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of…
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DocumentaryThe Reckoning: remembering the Dutch Resistance
Documentary 96 min / 2006 Rating: 7/10 My grandfather never talked about the war but I knew he had been involved in the Dutch Resistance….
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Adult fictionFlags out front
A Contrarian’s Daydream by Douglas Wilson 196 pages / 2017 Rating: Good/Great/GIFT In Flags out Front, Douglas Wilson has crafted something that is as inspirational as…
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NewsSaturday Selections – Nov 7, 2020
What cobras can teach us about incentives Prov. 27:14 teaches that good intentions are not enough. And yet many a government policy is implemented, not…
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Book excerptsGiraffe: nature’s gentle giants
This is Chapter 7 from Dr. Jerry Bergman’s new book Wonderful and Bizarre Life Forms in Creation which you can order at Creation Science Association…
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DramaDesperate Journey
Black and White / War / Drama 107 minutes / 1942 RATING: 8/10 Ronald Reagan and Errol Flynn are two members of an Allied bombing…
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NewsDutch mayor threatens church’s rented space over “conversion therapy”
Many churches around the world rent a space for their weekly worship services. But are rented spaces going to become a new front in persecution…
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NewsCalvin U’s student president is openly gay
For over 100 years, Reformed Christian parents have scrimped and saved for their children to study at Calvin College (now Calvin University), praying that these…
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NewsSaturday Selections – October 31, 2020
Robot hummingbird spies on half-billion butterflies (3 min) How do you get the inside scoop on 500 million wintering Monarch Butterflies? Send in a very…
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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…
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AnimatedTwo Martin Luther animated shorts
If you’re looking for some longer Martin Luther-related films, check out our “Martin at the movies” post on three films that are all currently available…
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NewsSaturday Selections – October 24, 2020
Is Canada systematically discriminatory? The Christian Heritage Party’s Vicki Gunn gives an answer to that question that you might not have been expecting? Chinese Calvinist…
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In a NutshellTidbits – October 2020
Move just one stick to fix the equation I thought there were three right answers, but after posting a version of this to Facebook, friends…
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Science – GeneralSurprising similarities: shrubs and whales, trees and snails
In his fabulous nonsense poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter (1871), Lewis Carroll groups cabbages and kings together. Upon reflection, we might ask what cabbages…
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DocumentaryFREE: Flight of the Butterflies
Documentary 2012 / 44 minutes RATING: 7/10 Equal parts detective story and nature documentary, Flight of the Butterflies tells the story of “Dana” and her offspring,…
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Book ReviewsFinding Narnia: the Story of C. S. Lewis and His Brother
by Caroline McAlister 48 pages / 2019 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give C.S. Lewis wrote, “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good…