Seeking Our Own Pleasure

While studying John Piper’s little book The Dangerous Duty of Delight,  I have recently become convinced of the absolute necessity of pursuing joy and pleasure in God as an end in itself rather than as a by-product of obedience. After all, are we not commanded many times over in the Scriptures to “rejoice in the Lord”?
I think that often in our fundamentalist [...]

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Summer activities for your toddlers

So moms, what do you do to keep your active toddlers from sitting in front of the TV, or in my case, from playing computer games? (thanks to my techie husband!) If you have a favorite game, activity, project, or internet site where you get resources, let’s start sharing our ideas! Summer is hardly over, and I’m running out of options! 
Today, my toddler helped me clean the [...]

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Principled Perspectives on Music-Part Four

Music’s Function in the Church Worship Service
Music functions in multiple ways in a church service. It is used to worship, to teach, to edify others, to give thanks, to offer up prayers and petitions, and to draw people’s attention to Christ. Music is worshipful when it helps us to bow down and pay respect to God, to reverently beseech [...]

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The Pope’s Statement of Faith-it’s all about the Church, not Christ.

The Pope didn’t say anything new, but it came as a shock to a lot of people. Why didn’t he just leave that bit of Catholic doctrine buried in the past? Instead though, the Pope clarified the Catholic doctrine on the issue of salvation; it is all about the the church, not Christ.
Personally, I’d much rather have a bold, public statement of faith [...]

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Principled Perspectives on Music-Part Three

Principled Perspectives on Music-Part Three 
So far we’ve established that there is meaning in music, and we’ve briefly touched on how classical and popular music both have their place in society. Popular music is driven by what is popular, and what is popular is driven by promotion and funding (and with enough marketing and money even the not-so-musically-talented can make the music charts and thus make [...]

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Contemplating the many pleasures of true freedom

Tonight as I watched fireworks I wondered if my pleasure at seeing such a beautiful sight and hearing such powerful sounds would not be so joyous had I  grown up differently. What if I lived in a land where the sounds of bombs and gunfire were a real life threat? Or what if I had been a soldier who endured and survived openfire combat [...]

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