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AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012: INSIDE OUT by Jason Lief "Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.... I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings." 1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23 "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't…

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012: REVIEW Praying for Strangers River Jordon Berkley, 2011 $24.95. 336 pages. In "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God," Simone Weil writes, "The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him: 'What are you going through?' It is a recognition that the sufferer exists, not only as a unit in a collection, or a specimen from the social category labeled 'unfortunate,'…

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012: POETRY by Julia Spicher Kasdorf after Rilke Little one, let the monarchs flex and rest on the sand before their long migrations. Ease your head onto the float as the sun sinks red on the ridge, summer done, no one else at the lake but a Russian who strokes and strokes on the far side of the rope. Soon enough we’ll dress and hurry home in sudden darkness. If you remember anything from this time, let it be…

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012: ESSAY by John Van Sloten " himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else." --Acts 17:25 We say we believe this, but do we really? I grew up in a church whose worldview was founded on a hugely sovereign and providential understanding of God. We held a high view of creation and believed that our world was made by andbelonged to God. We understood that Jesus played a mysterious role in the creation process, that all things…

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012: ESSAY by Scott Hoezee For the longest time I've been gathering some thoughts to write something about my colleague John Van Sloten's book The Day Metallica Came to Church (Square Inch, 2010). And then the February 2012 issue of Perspectives arrived, and it looked like another colleague, Jason Lief, had beaten me to the punch. But since my thoughts meander in a different theological direction than Lief's article ("Leave Metallica Alone! Why Metallica Coming to Church Is a…

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012: ESSAY by David G. Myers "Here are five reasons Christians should continue to publicly and winsomely oppose bestowing the term and institution of marriage upon same-sex couples: 1. Every time the issue of gay marriage has been put to a vote by the people, the people have voted to uphold traditional marriage." Kevin DeYoung, "Five Reasons Christians Should Continue to Oppose Gay Marriage," May 10, 2012, thegospelcoalition.org/blogs In the Reformed Church in America, a simmering cultural war has…