Graduations are popping up all over the place this month and next. There will be hundreds of commencement speeches by luminaries of varying lumens, hoping in some way to shed a little light on the path forward. There will be the usual clichés and some will step forward with a bit of genuine wisdom to [...]

I watched the movie The King’s Speech when it was released last year – the first time in nearly a decade that I took the initiative to see a movie in a theater (the last time it was Master and Commander).  As movies go these days, it was pretty good. I cannot vouch for the historical [...]

The Christian Reformed Church has increasingly inserted itself into political questions in the United States and Canada.  The Synod meeting in June, for instance, will consider a “Creation Stewardship” report that includes the following recommendations: E. That synod affirm the following findings (see section IX, C) concerning climate change and that it commend them to the [...]

Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him, for this is his lot. (Ecclesiastes 5:18 NIV) Some time ago, Marsha Sinetar wrote a book entitled Do [...]

 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.  Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools who do not know that they do wrong.  Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.  God is in heaven and [...]

Shalom is a congregation of the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA).  To most people in the world, what that means is, “huh?”  The fact is, there aren’t very many of us – only about 250,000 in the U.S. and Canada, mostly clusterred in west Michigan, northwest Iowa, and a few other areas of [...]

It’s a question. How does one decide? It’s fine to say that the Holy Spirit will lead, and it is indeed true. But does one receive a word on Monday what to talk about next Sunday? In his book, Freedom for Ministry, the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus says that if you don’t have a [...]

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.                      (Ephesians 5:21 NIV) Right here we have the basic, fundamental principle of biblical organization.  Whether one is in authority or under it, whether one makes decisions or carries them out, good organizations practice mutual submission.  The apostle Paul goes on to explain what he means by [...]

The Christian Reformed Church magazine, The Banner, recently published a piece by Pastor Ryan Roes of the Ann Arbor CRC entitled “Next: Relearning the Language of Justice”.  It’s a decent piece and I encourage you to have a look at it.  In the interests of relearning that language, let us consider that word first: Justice. [...]

“Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech…I have also acquired Ruth the Moabites…as my wife…” (Ruth 4:9, 10 NIV)  I bought a piece of land and acquired a wife with it.  How romantic.  There is a lot going on in the book of Ruth, and it is [...]