By Elizabeth Prata

In Spurgeon’s Evening devotional for September 30, he writes:

A living, loving, gospel sermon, however unlearned in matter and uncouth in style, is better than the finest discourse devoid of unction and power.

Evening Devotional, Spurgeon

I can imagine that Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of the 1800s, was thinking of his own conversion as he wrote this devotional. It was a snowy January day in 1850. The young lad had been raised by a loving father who preached the Gospel rightly. His mother had given him loving instruction at her knee since Charles was a babe. Charles was sent to live with his Grandfather for a period, and his grandfather was also a preacher, with many coming to conversion under him. His grandfather also had inherited a fabulous library as preacher, and Charles read theological books voraciously. As a teen Charles himself attended a Congregational church…

By Elizabeth Prata

It feels like God is definitely putting us to the test these days, doesn’t it?! At least it does to me- politically, economically, spiritually…even physically. I feel surrounded!

We want to do the right thing as a citizen of the USA but ultimately we want to do the right thing even more by our Lord & Savior as citizens of heaven.

The first Presidential election in which I ever voted, was in 1980 as an unsaved 19 year old. I was scared of Reagan, disillusioned with Carter (the Iran hostage situation etc.) so I voted for Independent John Anderson. I’ve always liked third party or outsiders-from-Washington, and these days even more so as the two main parties over the decades have gotten less stark in what they stand for.

The conversation after church shocked me. If he had been a new Christian, perhaps I wouldn’t have been quite so taken aback. But he had been saved for several years, and church leadership apparently considered him to be spirituality mature.

When he mentioned his horoscope, I couldn’t believe my ears! And he said it so casually, as if it was all very normal for a Christian to read horoscopes and give a little credence to astrology. After all, he wasn’t overly invested in the practice. It was an amusement that maybe had enough credibility to warrant his attention.

How a Christian could hold such an opinion baffled me then and continues to baffle me 23 years later.

By Elizabeth Prata

An historic tussle is occurring in the United States right now between Church and State. The Framers of the Constitution were mindful of the potential for overreach in their civil leaders, monarchs, and other authorities. They had known of the persecution of the Protestants, Puritans, and Huguenots of the 1600s. So when they hammered out the rights of the citizens, protecting the freedom to worship (or not) was part of the foundation of this country.

Screen grab from live stream August 8 worship service at Grace Church

The highest law in our land is the U.S. Constitution, which has some amendments, known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees that the government can never deprive people in the U.S. of certain fundamental rights including the right to freedom of religion and to free speech and the due process of law. (Source)

Here…