Crosswalk.com en-us Sunday, May 18, 2008 Sunday, May 18, 2008 rss.aspx support@crosswalk.com support@crosswalk.com http://media.salemwebnetwork.com/crosswalkredesign/images/display/crosswalk_logo_blue_tiny.gif http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/mcraven/ http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/mCraven/11575391/ The thing which most offended critics and reviewers of Ben Stein’s film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, was his attempt to link Darwinism to the Holocaust. On the one hand, modern Darwinians posit that the universe is the result of impersonal, amoral, natural forces while on the other denying this undermines objective moral standards. However, the Nazi’s understood what modern Darwinians do not; if you reject the Creator you cannot hope to live within the safety of the Creator’s rules. It is either God’s loving law or the law of the jungle. Mon, 12 May 2008 01:22:00 GMT 11575391 Michael Craven http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/mCraven/11574854/ Two years ago I wrote that we may be seeing the first signs of what could be a new cultural renaissance in Italy. Recent events in Italy seem to indicate that this "renaissance," if you will, has not only continued but may be gathering momentum. Could this indicate the revival of Christian influence in Europe? Mon, 05 May 2008 05:35:00 GMT 11574854 Michael Craven http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/mCraven/11574370/ Many in the American church know God in the same way they know the President—they know some facts about him, where he lives, what he does, etc.—but they do not have a relationship with him. This could be described as a cultural theology but a biblical theology is more akin to the relationship between a child and a good parent. The child in this sense has a much more intimate knowledge that, through time and maturation, reveals the loving nature of the parent. Experience only confirms this knowledge and this produces trust, which in turn fosters obedience. Failure to develop a coherent and systematic theology affects our ability to live as faithful followers of Christ. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:13:00 GMT 11574370 Michael Craven http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/mCraven/11573840/ For more than five decades, self-proclaimed experts and so-called sexual reformers have worked to advance the belief that there are no public consequences to private sexual behavior. And Americans, for the most part, have bought into this notion, proving what Lenin said, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth!” However, first-ever research reveals the fallacy of this notion and quantifies the high cost of immorality in America to be more than $112 billion each year! Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:08:00 GMT 11573840 Michael Craven http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/mCraven/11573281/ If Christians living within a distinct community is an essential witness to the mission of God, and because so many of us seem unwilling to surrender the independent self, and since our present expression of this community falls painfully short; what can we do to remedy this situation? This is not simply a matter of concern over sporadic church attendance or mediocre participation in the church potluck dinner; this is a central underlying principle, which nullifies the witness of God’s people and opposes the redemptive mission of God! So, I am asking you: What practical steps can churches and individuals take to foster and promote a healthy, distinctively biblical, and witness-bearing community? Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:53:00 GMT 11573281 Michael Craven