The Barnabas Blog

If you have any professional license and practice some skill in the United States generally the board that provided your certification requires some form of continuing education. This is particularly true for those who work in the medical field. From physicians all the way down the totem pole there is a general requirement for at least 24 hours of continuing education in the course of a two-year period. This is a way for the varying boards that provide licensure to help keep these people at least remotely proficient in how they practice. I am for this sort of activity because it sharpens the mind and usually provokes the mind to focus a bit so that certain skills will improve. It also keeps you aware of the various changes that are taking place in the field. However, since most ministers do not have someone holding their feet to the fire for continuing education, if it takes place at all, it is because of self-initiative and motivation. If a man is not careful, after he has ...

Recently it struck me once again how challenging that finding the will of God can be. I can remember not too long ago how that there seemed to be a much more desperate search for God’s approval in the choices that people made that really affected the whole direction of their life. Decisions such as career choices, job transfers, choice of a spouse, and certainly a direction for ministry were deemed as crucial moments that would need the utmost approval of God. I can remember reading in numerous biographies of those great men who accomplished something for God, the near state of spiritual angst that went with finding the will of God. One particular man wrote of very rapid spiritual growth that took place in his life but that spiritual growth was accompanied by an intense struggle to find the will of God. After the agonizing internal battle, he left to study for the ministry at a Bible school. In the process of doing this, he left an elite college to which he had a full scholarsh...

Last year, I was encouraged by two good friends of mine to add Daniel Silva to my reading stack. After listening to them for over a year, I happened to walk into a used bookstore and decided to spend a whole dollar for a somewhat beat-up hard-bound copy of Silva’s The Secret Servant . I was a little surprised at the alacrity that this new author drew me in. It was one of those books that you start in the evening and end up sitting up way too late to see how it ends. The story was about an Israeli spy who ran throughout Europe thwarting the efforts of Muslim assassins and their plans of destroying democracy. However, what really captured me about Silva’s works was the endnote. Silva listed several sources that he had used to research the background for the book. I subsequently tracked down most of these books and read most of them over about a four month period. What I discovered was that there has been a growing Muslim influence in Europe over the last thirty years as they ...