Discipleship

There seems to be two extremes when it comes to how Christians view their relationship with their possessions. The first one is that God wants 10%, often called the tithe. This is based on an Old Testament principle that the first 10% of what God gives us goes back to him. For this group, after you've learned how much to give, you've essentially fulfilled your duty and can do whatever you want with the rest. It's like a God-tax. After you pay it, you're done.

Recently, I typed in how to be happy on our collective consciousness, Google, and one of the first articles was Three Ways to Be Happy Always. Quite a claim. This article had some legitimately good advice, but it was sprinkled in among some proverbs that were less-than-helpful. For instance, this priceless pearl of wisdom: Compliment yourself often. This highlights a broader issue where a Christian response to cancel culture is needed.

My family loves the movie The Greatest Showman. Its the (highly embellished) account of P.T. Barnums rise to success. Theres a moving scene where his prospective father-in-law tells Barnum hell never be good enough for the mans daughter. He says, Shell see that and one day come back; shell grow tired of the poor life […]

Throughout the years, many have turned to H. Richard Niebuhr, who classically outlined the various responses that could be made in light of the interplay between Christ and culture, with such famous typologies as Christ Against Culture, Christ of Culture and Christ Above Culture. Yet what Niebuhr actually explained is how two authoritiesnamely Christ and Christians cultural engagement strategycompete with each another.

Conspirata is a sequel to Robert Harris novel Imperium, which chronicles the rise of Cicero in ancient Rome. Harris is a great novelist, and he sticks to the facts and to the actual speeches of Cicero as much as possiblewhich is what make this book so valuable. You feel you know these people afterwards, especially considering the Roman culture Jesus entered. Conspirata […]