The Work of Grace

One of the things that distinguishes Christianity from all other major religions of the world is the issue of grace. No other religion makes so much of grace and in no other system of belief is grace so central as in the Christian faith. And it is easy to see why. In just about every other system, indeed I would submit that in every other system, what man does to reach up to God is the essence of the belief. From Islam to Buddhism, man is constantly trying to find a better way to reach up to God and somehow please Him enough to be accepted by Him. That was the primary impetus behind the heathen ancients' sacrificial system: "how can I appease the deities so they will be pleased with me"?

LGBTQ+...Pride?

This month has been named LGBTQ+ Pride Month. According to this article at ABCnews.go.com, "Every summer in the United States, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and allies come together for a month-long celebration of love, diversity, acceptance and unashamed self-pride" (notice the words "celebration" and "unashamed"). The article goes on to explain that the month of June was selected for the "celebration" in order to commemorate the Stonewall riots that took place in 1969. If you don't know what the Stonewall riots are, I will not get into that here, but you can search and find a plethora of information on that unfortunate episode on the internet.

Politics, Politics!

Every time I see a Facebook meme or a twit reported in the media praising one of the political parties or the other, I wonder whether those heaping praise on them understand the nature of man. You will often see Christians singing the praises on the so-called conservative party in our land. To them, whatever the Republicans do is defacto good and proper. It matters little who the person is or what kind of individual he may be in his personal life, the fact that he is a member of the Republican party and is a "conservative," somehow gives him some sort of street cred that others do not have. The same can be said on the other side of the ledger. If you're a Democrat, then whatever those folks do has your stamp of approval.