King Henry VIII established the basic tenets of the faith of Anglicans and published the 39 Articles of the Faith in the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549. In the 39 Articles is spelled out the books of the Bible that are considered Canonical. To be Canonical means that these books are considered authoritative […]
Category Archives: Father Knows Best
In the book of John chapter 15 it says we should go and bear fruit. What would one consider to be good fruit?
We talked a little bit about this last week. So let me go on a little more. John 15 is the chapter where John records Jesus’ telling his disciples that “I am the vine and you are the branches.” He goes on to say that God the Father is the Vine dresser. Now, what I […]
What would spiritual productivity look like in our life?
I suppose that temporal productivity would be to produce things of value to the temporal world. It follows then that spiritual productivity would be to produce things that are of value in the spiritual world. So, to be temporally productive might mean that we make rope and tea cups and gold rings and antibiotics and […]
What is the difference between All Souls and All Saints days in the church; are they the same?
Great question, but I want to add one more thing to it, All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. They are all three related. They are also confused. Some of the confusion has to do with language. We have a combination Greek, Latin, English and German words that makes for difficulty. As I noted above, Halloween is […]
My friend asked me how can you believe in and love a man you have never met or seen; she was talking about Jesus. How do I answer that?
At first glance it does seem strange that we should fall in love with Jesus about whom we really know so little. But then again it is not at all unusual for relationships to form by being penpals. There is indeed a modern day scam wherein people meet by text message or by email and […]
What is the bible talking about when it says we should “abide in Christ”?
The verse that I thought of first is this one: John 15:4-5 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. The dictionary uses quite a few words to define the meaning of abide. They include: to […]
God answered my prayer, so what should I do in order to show that I am thankful?
May I suggest that your heart will lead you. I find that actions follow attitude pretty reliably. If God has answered your prayer, then apparently you cared enough about something to pray about it. I hope that, in the end, you asked that God would bring about whatever He thought best in the situation. I […]
Where do I go to learn about being a faithful, wise, and generous steward of God’s gifts?
It is a wonderful thing that someone even thinks to ask this question. For someone to become curious about how to walk in partnership with God and help to parcel out His blessings speaks to someone’s desire to become more Godly. All too often people are only concerned with how to acquire the blessings of […]
The Gospel for this Sunday says:the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. What does that mean?
I borrowed this from one of my favorite bible commentaries: In Lk.16:8 the lesson is that the sons of this world are wiser in their generation than the sons of light. That means that, if only the Christian was as eager and ingenious in his attempt to attain goodness as the man of the world […]
Do you believe that people that commit murder will be forgiven?
There are few sins that are more serious than the taking of a human life. The only one that I can think of right now is that of leading someone’s soul astray. Unfortunately, both sins are far too common these days. But frankly, I shouldn’t have added those words “these days”. I am getting to […]