August - 2019

Cultural Blinders

Cultural Blinders

Cultural Blinders: A Former Missionary’s Perspective on How Cross Cultural Experiences Can Both Expose and Remove Them Peter said, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34, 35 ESV).[1] As a former overseas missionary, it’s no surprise to me at least that this realization did not come 1) after Peter had preached the equality of the Gentiles on Pentecost by inspiration (2:

3 Steps Towards Developing Wisdom

3 Steps Towards Developing Wisdom

James once asked, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” (James 3:13). He gives an immediate answer to his question, by saying a man is wise not because of who he is but because of what he does: “Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom” Yet the question remains, what kind of conduct will allow a man to be identified as wise? By searching through the Bible for the phrase, “is wise,” one can find three actions that will of necessity be

Are you a Mint Slice?

Are you a Mint Slice?

One of my favourite Australian biscuits is Arnott’s Mint Slice (by the way, to Aussies cookies are biscuits and biscuits are scones – go figure). To get the taste and texture of this biscuit in your mind, imagine a York Peppermint Patty with less of the white stuff in the middle and in its place a chocolate cookie and you’re pretty close. During my time in Melbourne, we would occasionally have these biscuits at church luncheons and other functions. On a rare occasion there we

A mother looks at drinking

A mother looks at drinking

Chapters 1 - 9 of Proverbs is unique in that it is written from the perspective of a father; it contains advice from a father to his son. Proverbs therefore begins with the advice of a father; interestingly (and probably by design), it ends with the advice of a mother: “The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him” (Proverbs 31:1). One of the things that King Lemuel’s mother wanted her son to know about was the danger of drinking alcohol. To help her so

Olive Trees in the Bible

Olive Trees in the Bible

I’ve met a lot of people who don’t like olives. Usually their aversion is revealed to me as they pick olives out of the food my wife has prepared. I’ve had to endure watching that sad little pile of rejected olives a lot over the years simply because my wife makes a lot of food with olives in it. We love olives! I grew up eating black olives straight out of the can and had them on pizza, pasta, and Subway sandwiches (I always have to say “extra olives” at Subway because they

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