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Archive for May, 2009

  • Why Did I Say That? | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 29 2009

    Starving people don’t care why someone is giving them food. Neither will a drowning person reject the help of someone who is trying to be a hero.
    Sometimes  motives don’t seem that important. Even the Apostle Paul wrote that he was more concerned about the message than the motives of those who were spreading the gospel [...]

  • Discouraged Workers, Unemployment, and Faith | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 27 2009

    In April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate stood at 8.9%.
    Among the states, Michigan currently stands at 12.9%, still leading the nation’s unemployment rate for 28 consecutive months. Neither number reflects “discouraged workers” who according to the Bureau of Labor are not looking for work because they believe there are [...]

  • Wage Issues | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 26 2009

    One of the concerns we keep hearing about in the present job market is that in a downward adjusting economy those who are laid off may have to re-employ at a lower base wage than they left behind.  And if inflation kicks in?
    Seems like a good time to review our contract/covenant issues with the source [...]

  • Remembering the Fallen | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 25 2009

    On Dec 23, 2006, three Michigan soldiers died when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations in Salman Pak, Iraq.
    Spc. Chad J. Vollmer, 24, of Grand Rapids; Pfc. Wilson A. Algrim, 21, of Howell; and Pvt. Bobby Mejia II, of Saginaw paid the ultimate price in the service of our country.
    Chad [...]

  • Keeping Secrets With God! | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 23 2009

    Go public with faith-based actions. Hide them. Which is it supposed to be?
    Jesus taught his disciples to do both:

    To go public with the good that they did.
    To keep their good actions as a secret between themselves and God.

    How are we supposed to sort that out?
    In the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount he first taught his [...]

  • What’s Happening Here? | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 21 2009

    Oh no. I remember my sense of alarm when I heard someone talk about the New Testament discrepancy between two different accounts of Jesus feeding thousands with a few pieces of bread and fish.
    Then I discovered something else. Both accounts were described in the Gospel of Matthew  in two consecutive chapters, with a summary to [...]

  • How to be One | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 21 2009

    A lot of thoughts have been going through my mind as we’ve wrestled together with the issue of how to respond as followers of Christ to the social debate regarding a national public policy on abortion.
    In some ways I’m unnerved by the fact that this is one more subject over which many of us find [...]

  • Notre Dame, Obama, and Abortion | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 18 2009

    President Obama’s speech yesterday at the University of Notre Dame, together with the decision of Chief Justice David Souter to retire from the Supreme Court, will heat up the abortion issue this week.
    Followers of Christ will once again find ourselves in the middle of a debate that will test our wisdom.
    It will test our wisdom [...]

  • Another Look at Paul and Jesus | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 15 2009

    Since our recent discussion about “why Paul didn’t quote Jesus” I’ve spent more time thinking about the question. Since what follows is about 3 times longer than a post of “reasonable length” you may not have time for it now. But I hope that, if not now, when you have a chance you will see [...]

  • Killing One Another | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 13 2009

    Many of us are trying to understand why an army sergeant turned his weapon on five fellow soldiers at a stress clinic in the outskirts of Baghdad. What was going through the mind of a man who already had his gun taken away before coming up with another? (See article here)
    The soldier had three tours [...]

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