It’s that time of the year when spring or summer getaways are planned.

But instead of following the crowds to a beach consider a trip centered on religious heritage, including unique architecture and art on par with the finest museums.

Norway

This Nordic country isn’t known for its old churches, but with 28 wooden medieval-era churches it should be.

Called stave churches, the name comes from the construction method of erecting load-bearing posts — staves in Norwegian — upon rocks or sill frames.

Kaupanger’s 12th century stave church features a 16th century baroque interior. Other notable stave churches are found in Borgund and Urnes, the latter of which dates to the year 1130 and includes its original crucifix.

Most of the stave churches are located in Norway’s Fjord region, which means flying into Bergen or Trondheim and renting a car.

Norfolk and Suffolk, England

East Anglia, as the region encompassing the historic English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk is called, has over 150 medieval churches with round towers. By contrast, this style is incredibly rare elsewhere in England.

Many remain active houses of worships. Others are so-called redundant churches in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Dennis Lennox

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

It’s that time of the year when spring or summer getaways are planned.

But instead of following the crowds to a beach consider a trip centered on religious heritage, including unique architecture and art on par with the finest museums.

Norway

This Nordic country isn’t known for its old churches, but with 28 wooden medieval-era churches it should be.

Called stave churches, the name comes from the construction method of erecting load-bearing posts — staves in Norwegian — upon rocks or sill frames.

Kaupanger’s 12th century stave church features a 16th century baroque interior. Other notable stave churches are found in Borgund and Urnes, the latter of which dates to the year 1130 and includes its original crucifix.

Most of the stave churches are located in Norway’s Fjord region, which means flying into Bergen or Trondheim and renting a car.

Norfolk and Suffolk, England

East Anglia, as the region encompassing the historic English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk is called, has over 150 medieval churches with round towers. By contrast, this style is incredibly rare elsewhere in England.

Many remain active houses of worships. Others are so-called redundant churches in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Dennis Lennox

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

While God used apologetics to bring me back to faith, God uses theology to humble, awe, and comfort me before his amazing presence. Theology is a passion of mine. My resume will show how much I love theology. As I mentioned in a previous post, I realized that schools hiring teachers desire applicants to possess 18 hours of graduate study in a chosen field. Curious as to what hours I held, I began to investigate how many hours I possess in different fields. I realized that by the time I finish my Ph.D., I will carry 30 hours of theological study. I guess you could call me an overachiever. I certainly don’t say this to sound braggadocios. I merely mention this to note the great impact theology has made in my life.

Even while I have devoted much of my time to theological studies, I still find the words of Dr. Daniel Mitchell, Professor of Theology at Liberty University, to ring true, “The more we study God, the bigger God becomes.” I asked him about what he meant by that statement in a class that I had with him. Mitchell noted that he did not mean to say that we make God bigger in our imaginations, but rather we begin to understand how big God truly is the more we study him. When we understand the grandeur of God, our worries tend to fade away in the warm, strong arms of God.

One divine attribute that provides both awe and serenity is God’s divine omnipresence. The word omnus means “all.” We all understand what the term presence means. Thus, God has the capacity to be in all places at all points of time. There is not a place where God’s presence is not found. Scripture indicates the omnipresent nature of God in many locations, but it is most explicitly found in Psalm 139. David writes as he speaks to God,

“Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night’—even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you” (Ps. 139:7–12, CSB).

From the text at hand, God is shown to be present in every location at the same point in time. Wayne Grudem defines God’s omnipresence as the following: “God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 173). Divine omnipresence impacts the believer in multiple ways, but for the sake of space, I will concentrate on only five.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Brian G. Chilton

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

Mainstream celebrities Master P, born Percy Robert Miller, and his son, Romeo Miller, attended the 28th annual Movieguide Awards where they told The Christian Post that they’ve veered away from their past hip-hop messages to create content that reflects their Christian faith.

While on the red carpet, Master P acknowledged the importance of being at an awards show that celebrates faith and family films.

“Romeo has started a brand, Romeo Land, and it’s all about having great content,” he told CP.

Along with his roster of businesses, the hip-hop and sports mogul said his movie company, Genius Minds Pictures, and his son’s new company, Romeo Land, are gearing up to release a Christian film.

“We have our first faith-based movie coming out, it’s called, ‘God Is Real.’ So people are going to see this everywhere,” he said.

“Don’t be afraid to grow and change,” Master P maintained. “Where I come from, I come from the streets, I come from the struggle and pain. Without God, I wouldn’t be here. So why not change and grow up and do right?”

Along with “God Is Real,” Romeo is starring in the faith-based movie, “Can You Hear the Lamb.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death over 30 people, including an Anglican pastor, in overnight attacks on villages in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Tuesday, four villages were raided by the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist group, in the west of Beni territory, Reuters reports. The rebel group has its origins in Uganda but is now based in DR Congo’s Beni region.

Beni Governor Donat Kibwana told AFP that members of the terrorist group hacked all victims to death with machetes. In total, 36 individuals were killed, including an Anglican pastor.

The main attack took place in Manzingi, a village northwest from Oicha, while the pastor was killed in the village of Eringeti.

“The victim had the misfortune to pass them on his way to the field with his wife,” Omar Kavota from rights group CEPADHO said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Launched in the mid-1990s by Ugandan Muslim rebels forced out of Uganda, the ADF has become the conflict-stricken DRC’s most active and violent rebel group over the past two years. Led by Musa Baluku, the group is known for committing crimes such as murder, rape and abduction of women and children, as well as slavery and indoctrination.

The Beni region has seen a surge of violence since Oct. 30 when Congolese troops launched an offensive against the rebels. In total, 265 people have been killed by the ADF since November, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, a research initiative that maps unrest in Congo’s east.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source

Our public discourse and politics feel like they are about to explode, don’t they?

With the fallout from President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial coinciding with the beginning of the 2020 election cycle, the outlook for the future looks positively frightening.

But looks can be deceiving. While Congress, the Twitterati and talking heads on cable news are at each other’s throats, the idea that the general public is polarized is, to say the least, overstated.

As I’ve highlighted in other contexts, Pew finds that a whopping 44% of Americans now identify as independent — the highest percentage in the 75 years Pew has been tracking this number. By contrast, Pew found that only 27% identify as Democrats and 26% as Republicans.

A major 2018 study of political affiliation in the U.S. titled “Hidden Tribes” found, as The New York Times put it, that most people “do not see their lives through a political lens, and when they have political views the views are far less rigid than those of the highly politically engaged, ideologically orthodox tribes.” Indeed, two-thirds of U.S. residents belong to what the study described as an “exhausted majority” whose members “share a sense of fatigue with our polarized national conversation, a willingness to be flexible in their political viewpoints.”

While the gatekeepers of our public discourse have a financial interest in keeping us anxious and antagonistic, the actual data show that dialogue across difference is possible. Even hopeful.

We must, however, take care in how we go about doing it.

Back in 2012 I published a piece with five suggestions for civil discourse, including humility, solidarity, avoiding binary thinking and dismissive name-calling and, finally, leading with what you are for, not what you are against.

But I left out something really important, and I (re)discovered it again when I recently attended a conference put on by the Catholic lay group Focolare a couple weeks ago titled “A Hearth for the Human Family.”

The Focolare, which by statute must be led by a woman, came to be during the bombing of Trent, Italy, during World War II when the group’s founder, Chiara Lubich, and her friends huddled by the fire (Focolare means “hearth” in Italian) and opened the Bible to Jesus’ prayer “that all may be one.”

From then on, the Focolare would focus on unity, and especially on dialogue across difference, aimed at working toward that unity.

And, boy, has the group been successful. Focolare has brought a wide range of Catholic, Protestant, non-Christian and secular folks from all over the world into dialogue on many different kinds of issues, all the while keeping its members’ faith in Jesus, his blessed mother and the church at the forefront of their spiritual life.

The group’s outreach has been wide-ranging. In 1982, Lubich founded a School for Oriental Religions in the Philippines to foster understanding between Christians and followers of Hinduism, Buddhism and other Eastern religions. A long-standing relationship between Focolare and American Muslims began with her visit to the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque in Harlem in 1997.

Source: Religion News Service

All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source