When the first Christians were in process of becoming something big, something substantial from the perspective of all around them, a Jew named Gamaliel stood up and gave this speech: 35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. 36 For before these days Theudas rose...
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Let’s play a game. I’ll quote a Bible passage and omit the last word. See if you can fill in the blank. (If you already know this verse, this game loses its effect. And no cheating: Do not open your Bible for this game.) “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in...
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Not Suitable for Family Time! The Crown has been thrilling — watching (sometimes fictionalized) tensions behind closed doors at Buckingham Palace — but a different Netflix account of “royalty” at the same intersection, that of money, power, and fame is equally thrilling: Peaky Blinders. Like other shows with a cult-like following, Peaky Blinders boasts a...
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Early on a Sunday morning in East Harlem, a young couple and their two daughters wait for the elevator up to the second-floor space where their church meets above the neighborhood laundromat. Their youngest, dressed in all white, sleeps–for now–peacefully in her stroller. Sundays like this have become especially meaningful, not only because they gather...
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Last month Jacob Birch wrote a widely-viewed article at Christianity Today questioning the common use of Jeremiah 29 in the Western church. In short, Birch complains that the common refrain, “We live in a period of exile” in today’s Western church is an ill-advised framework to understand the church’s relationship to our broader culture. We...
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Let me tell you a story… Since ancient of days, these words have held our collective imaginations captive. We all enjoy a good story: to be drawn into a compelling narrative; to be transfixed by flawed but sympathetic characters; to be swept away by conflict, tension, adventure; and finally, to be rescued by resolution, conclusion,...
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