By Guest Columnist Jonathan Underwood It’s mid-summer, but many people are already anticipating the fall and the launch of a new year of church programs that come with it. What will your church do for adult Sunday school this year? That’s a recurring question in many churches. As biblical literacy continues to decline, churches […]
Dealing with Divorce: What Would Jesus Do?
By Shawn McMullen Charles M. Sheldon’s fictional classic, In His Steps, was first published in 1897. It’s about the spiritual awakening of a minister, Henry Maxwell, and his congregation following the death of a poor, unemployed beggar who happened into their Sunday morning worship service. The day the man died (just a week after […]
Why We Need the Psalms
By Shawn McMullen As a child, I memorized the twenty-third psalm (King James Version) in Sunday school. While I didn’t understand every line, the phrase, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me” (v. 4) gave me comfort whenever I […]
Why we read the Psalms
By Shawn McMullen The collection is called Praises in the Hebrew text. Later it became known as The Book of Praises. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) titled it Psalms from the Greek psalmos, indicating the use of instrumental music or song. For thousands of years the psalms have comforted, corrected, […]
Those Who Are with Us
By Shawn McMullen The nation of Aram was at war with the nation of Israel. (You can read the account in 2 Kings 6:8-23.) The Arameans had a formidable army, but their king faced an unusual problem. Every time he planned a move against the Israelite forces, the prophet Elisha revealed it to the […]