Reminder: The Government Does Not Own Marriage

Recently, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was ruled to be unconstitutional. This basically means that states have the ability to allow same-sex marriages.

For some reason, a lot of Christians are upset by this. Honestly, that’s perplexing to me.

Do we really believe that the government has the right to define marriage? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that marriage is actually a covenant before God, not the government.

Sure, the government tries to recognize marriages for tax purposes and all that. But the government is unable to decide whether two people are truly married or not.

Only God can do that.

An Essential Resource

I’ve noticed a trend in “Christian” marketing. If you want to be sure people buy a product, just label it as an “essential resource.”

I did a quick search for Christian books that include the phrase “essential resource” in their descriptions, and I came up with almost 1,000 results. That’s about four large bookshelves packed full with resources that are all “essential” if you’re a Christian.

Better get reading!

Seriously though, I wonder if these marketers actually understand the word essential? According to Dictionary.com, it means “absolutely necessary; indispensable.”

Francis Chan Asks, “Is This Really Church?”

It’s no secret that I greatly appreciate the ministry of Francis Chan. While I don’t like putting people up on pedestals, there are few biblical teachers today who have had as much impact on my life as he has.

When I recently reviewed Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love, I mentioned that the updated edition included a section talking about some changes that occurred in his ministry since writing the book. With that as a preface, I’d like to share a video with you.

If I’ve pieced together the history correctly, I believe this sermon coincides with that shift in his ministry. I watched this video around the same time I first read Crazy Love, and it had just about as great an impact on me.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan (Book Review)

Outside of the Bible, there are very few books that I can say have truly changed the course of my life. Crazy Love by Francis Chan is one of them. So when I found out that a newly revised and updated edition was being published, I knew I had to review it. Thank you, David C Cook, for sending me a copy.

The premise of this book is simple. God’s love for us is crazy; we should therefore live a life of crazy love for him.

In the first chapter, Francis paints a picture of God—an awesome, beautiful, terrifying picture. From the start, we see just who this God we serve really is. Next, Francis describes who we are. When it comes down to it, we’re pretty insignificant. He compares us to a movie extra hidden away in the background of some scene, but we act as though we’re the star. Make no doubt about it, the “movie” of life is all about God, from start to finish.

But that’s not where it ends. After comparing our squalor to God’s splendor, we are shown that God loves us. For some utterly incomprehensible reason, the God of the universe loves us. He loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for us, to redeem us, to adopt us as his children.

Who Is Qoheleth?

At 4:15 on the morning of May 12, 2013, Tessa gave birth to our first son, Qoheleth Andrew McKnight. We are so blessed! Tessa has written more about our home birth, which you may read on her blog.

The name Qoheleth is pretty unusual, and we’ve been getting plenty of questions about it, so I figured it’s about time to explain the name and why we chose it.

Qoheleth comes from the book of Ecclesiastes. However, you won’t see it in most English translations. That’s because it has been traditionally rendered as either “the Preacher” or “the Teacher.”

A more literal translation would be “the assembler” or “the gatherer.” This could mean that he assembled the people in order to teach them (thus the traditional translation). It could also mean that he was a member of the assembly. Or it could refer to the many experiences he gathered. I tend to favor the latter, given the content of the book of Ecclesiastes.