Life

• Reading around: 4 Bible verses Christians take out of context

  'A text without a context is a pretext.' It's good advice, but it's surprising how often Christians ignore it.

• Thomas à Kempis: 11 quotes from a great spiritual writer

  Today is the feast day of Thomas à Kempis (1379-1471) in the Episcopal Church's calendar.

• Risky with love: Rethinking the parable of the talents

  The parable seems to imply that what God values above all is striving and will reward those who maximise what they have been given for the simple reason that more is better.

• Good news in the news: 3 stories with a gospel message

  There are good things happening across the world and they should be talked about and celebrated.

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  11-year-old genius who's already finished college says he wants to use science to prove God exists

  An 11-year-old boy genius, who on Saturday graduated from St. Petersburg College in Florida just two years after finishing high school, said he wants to become an astrophysicist and prove that God exists.

• Can the Google Ghost predict the Second Coming?

  During the few years of its existence, the world has grown used to using Google to find out the answer to almost everything.

• Modern marriage: Is it Mission Impossible?

  We glowered at each other, frustrated. The silence hung awkwardly. We were stuck and didn't know how to move forward.

• Godly complaining: What the Bible teaches about how to find fault

  Someone muted me on Facebook a while ago. Apparently I was 'complaining' too much.

• Why is Generation Z more open to faith? They don't have the church baggage

  Young people in the UK are more open to faith because they don't have the preconceptions about church that their elders do.

• From Adam to Apocalypse: How making the Bible shorter might encourage more people to read it

  The Bible is full of dramatic stories that have made it the world's bestselling book. But whoever has time to read it all from cover to cover?

• Christians and the cult of busyness: Why we need to learn to do less

  The busier a Christian is, the closer to God they are. But is this true?

• True holiness: Why it's not about keeping the rules

  Talk of holiness can easily make us feel inadequate, a measure of how far we've fallen short, a reminder of how much further we have to go.

• How can the church turn mid-life spiritual crisis into an opportunity?

  As an adult I now find it chilling that their most potent threat comes not in the deep dark shadows, but in the bright, warm sunshine of the enchanted poppy field, where the sweet fragrance lulls them into a lethal state of listlessness.

• Vatican-approved journal hits out at 'dangerous and different' prosperity gospel

  A Vatican approved journal has launched a stinging attack on 'prosperity gospel' evangelicals with a broadside against the theology that teaches God wants Christians to be rich.

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  Do you feel like your Christian testimony is really boring?

  There are some dramatic conversion stories out there, but me? I have felt almost guilty at the lack of conflict in my life.