Practical Christian Living

I’ve always been puzzled by statements in Psalms that seem to encourage hatred. Is this compatible with Christian love? This is a case in which knowing the precise usage and meaning of a biblical word is indispensable in grasping the intent of the biblical writer. A modern equivalent of a Hebrew ...

The Divine Design for Marriage According to the Edenic model for marriage, a man and woman are to “be joined” (Heb. dabaq ) to one another in a permanent marital relationship (Gen 2:24). This “joining” involves a lasting covenant bond between husband and wife, implied not only by the covenant t...

Jon Dybdahl’s book addresses a legitimate concern, namely the spiritual life of church members and their relationship to God. To be precise, how does one experience God? The author makes many good and helpful statements. In some places the book inspires readers, while in others it raises a number...

The Sabbath is God’s gift to us, an offer to improve the quality of our life. Therefore, God does not only tell us to observe the Sabbath day, but gives us instruction on how to do it so that the day may become a real blessing for us. The Sabbath as a Benefactor Mark 2:27 In his love God institut...

In many societies the greatest problem with addiction is not the various illicit drugs that people somehow get and use but the consumption of alcohol which is more easily available. Because of alcohol abuse great damage is not only done to society and economy but also to unborn life (foetal alcoh...

The need for spiritual revival cannot be overstressed. As stated by Elder Ted Wilson, this is the time for church leaders to call the church to pray for it. But what does revival mean and what is its intended goal? Revival Based on Our Conversion. Revival implies a prior conversion, that we were...

Paul’s rejection of extreme positions regarding marriage and food in 1 Tim 4:1-5 have frequently been misunderstood. It seems that some people are quite easily deceived and may fall for various heresies, oftentimes choosing one extreme or the other. In NT times and subsequent centuries some follo...

People today have a problem with time. One hundred and fifty years ago, if a merchant from Chicago had to do business in New York, he may have had to spend an entire week, because it took him so long to get to New York and back again. Today he takes an airplane and arrives there in one or two hou...

Increasingly in many societies marriage between a man and a woman is looked upon as optional, with some considering cohabitation to be a reasonable alternative. Cohabitation may be defined as a sexual-emotional relationship “in which two unmarried persons of the opposite sex share a living facili...

Nature and Function of the Conscience At the deepest level of every human soul is the conscience, an active agent which the Greeks called syneidesis , meaning “knowing with” or “co-knowledge.” It is the quality that distinguishes humans from the rest of the creation, the seat of moral thinking ...