From Boundless Webzine by J. Budziszewski
It was only a little past 11, and the Union was almost empty. Expecting a quiet lunch, I chose a table where I could look out the window at the Quad. No sooner had I set down my tray than a familiar face materialized in front of me. “Expecting someone, Prof?” It was Mark Manasseh.
“Not at all. Pull up a chair.”
He sat down with a plate of something I didn’t recognize.
From Boundless Webzine by J. Budziszewski
I must have jumped when Mark spoke, because he said “Did I startle you, Professor Theophilus?”
“Yes,” I confessed. “Usually I hear people coming. You just shimmered in, like Jeeves.”
“Who’s Jeebes?”
“Never mind. Are you looking for someone?” He’d glanced over his shoulder.
“Yes, Sarah and Mary were supposed to be right behind me.” At just that moment they materialized. Sarah smiled. Mary burrowed in her backpack, and with a shower of number two pencils, extracted something and handed it to me.
“Yours.” It was my missing coffee mug.
“I’m glad to see you all,” I said, “But I was just going out for a bite.”
“Have it with us,” urged Sarah.
I asked “Is there a special occasion?” We walked to the Edge of Night.
“Not exactly,” said Mary, “but we need to pick your brains about living with non-Christians.” When I shot her a puzzled look, she turned to the others and asked, “Doesn’t he know?”
“Guess not,” said Mark. “Mary’s a Christian now, Prof.”
“Congratulations!” I exclaimed. “But why do you need to pick my brains?”
“My fault,” Mark said. “See, Professor Theophilus, I feel that part of my job here on earth is to make friends with people of different religions, so that I can bring them into Christ’s kingdom.”
“I don’t see the problem.”
“Just wait,” said Mary. “He’s crazy.”
“Well,” said Mark, “My old roommate moved out. I need a new one, so I’m planning to share the rent with this person I met who follows a different religion.” Mary rolled her eyes.
“How different?”
From Boundless Webzine by Candice Watters
DEAR BOUNDLESS ANSWERS
One of my closest Christian friends introduced me to your column, and even though I’ve NEVER written to a column editor before, I thought I would give it a try.
I’m 24 years old, currently in my third year of medical school. I’ve been a Christian for most of my life, but really started to walk with God the last few years. I have a decent network of Christian friends, though I’m not currently attached to a church or bible study, due to the fact that I travel a lot for my clinical rotations. I try to go to church when I can, but I haven’t been able to plug into one church since I am on the road so much.
From Boundless Webzine by Candice Watters
DEAR BOUNDLESS ANSWERS
In one of my calculus classes, I met a young man (I’ll call him Jeremy), who offered to help me on a project. At the end of the term, I gave him a Christmas card. To my surprise, he emailed me and told me I could email.
I did email him, and we continued to email for almost five months before we had another class together. During that time, we asked each other numerous questions and told each other a lot (or what I thought was a lot) about each other — our likes, dislikes, opinions, etc. When we finally had another class together, Jeremy asked if I could drive him home (he lived really close to my house and it gave us more time to talk about things). My parents had no problem with it, and I said OK. I drove him home for the rest of the term.
Eventually, we began to do non-academic things together. I invited him over several times to my house. He came over and we (along with my younger sister) had a lot of fun. Also, we went to see movies together, played in the park, etc.
To read the rest of this article…
From Boundless Webzine by Candice Watters
DEAR BOUNDLESS ANSWERS
I am a Christian guy. I came to know Christ later in life (31 years old) and God has put me through a crash course, so to speak, in the Christian worldview. Now I am dating a wonderful Christian woman who is 28 years old and has known the Lord most of her life.
Recently, she wore an outfit that was really hot that included a pair of short shorts, and she could see that I was conflicted. This brought up a conversation about modesty. This seems to be a new concept for her and I’m having a difficult time discussing it with her. All of the resources I find seem to be geared at educating your kids on modesty. I need help because now she feels like she left the house feeling cute, like she had it going on, and now I have burst that bubble.
Please guide us to a resource that will help us through this topic in an adult manner and will help her feel like she can catch my eye without being immodest. Thank you so much.
From Back to the Bible with Elisabeth Elliot
Elisabeth Elliot: “Although I cannot control what other people wear, especially on the outside world, it seems disrespectful to me to see ladies in church in very short skirts or skimpy, sleeveless tops. I would imagine that it could be distracting to men who are trying to keep their minds on God.”
Lisa Barry: If you’ve ever tried without success to convince a woman that men are affected by another woman’s lack of modesty, you’ll appreciate today’s program. I’ve heard from many respectable men who say that a woman who dresses provocatively is a distraction. And I believe the men who say it’s not a distraction simply prefer to enjoy it rather than shoo it away.
But how do you convince a woman of something she herself cannot feel or understand? Elisabeth Elliot offers some important thoughts on the subject of modesty, coming up next on this Friday edition of Gateway To Joy.
Elisabeth Elliot: “You are loved with an everlasting love,” that’s what the Bible says, “and underneath are the everlasting arms.” This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliot, continuing my talks today on the subject of modesty. I have had piles and piles of letters from the last time that I dared to broach the subject of modesty. I expected a lot more brickbats than I got.
Here’s a letter from a woman who says:
“I don’t know if you will be under siege because of these week’s talks, but I thought I would just say thank you for having the courage to play them. Yes, I am strongly convicted, and yes, I hang my head because of guilt, but I know the conviction is from the Holy Spirit and not you. Thank you for the reminder of what I am to be as a woman of God. Sincerely, Kim.”
From “The Uptmost-way Magazine” by Amy Melinda
If a young lady wishes to marry one day the man she always dreamed of, she might be willing to change the way she dresses in order to keep herself pure for him (Proverbs 31:12). If a young lady has chosen to save herself for one man on the whole earth, he must be the sort of man who is honorable, able to be fully trusted, one you could pour your whole heart out to and know your secrets won’t ever leave him. This sort of man would have made a covenant with his eyes not to look on a woman to lust after her beauty. He would be a man who would be keeping himself pure for the one whom he would some day meet and marry for life. He would be looking for a young woman who does not give every man who sees her hope for a relationship with her (Proverbs 11:22; Ecclesiastes 7:25-29; Proverbs 31:30).
You see, the way a girl dresses speaks of what is in her heart. If she loves her Savior, Jesus, she will dress to please Him. How does she know what clothes Jesus likes? By knowing Jesus and in careful study of His words we can know what He desires for us. The Holy Spirit will make us feel uneasy about wearing clothes that are too revealing. A young woman who desires to please her Savior will wear clothing that would draw a person’s eyes to her face, where shines the beauty of her heart (Matthew 6:22-23). You can tell a lot from looking at a person’s eyes. The face of one who lives in the presence of God shines with the glory of God (Exodus 34:29, Ecclesiastes 8:1; Matthew 17:2). A life of sin wears a face of shame and darkness is in the eyes.
