Evaluating culture. Culture may be likened to a tapestry, intricate and often beautiful, which is woven by a given society to express its corporate identity. The colours and patterns of the tapestry are the community's common beliefs and common customs, inherited from the past, enriched by contemporary art and binding the community together. Each of us, without exception, has been born and bred in a particular culture.

"Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say "My tooth is aching" than to say "My heart is broken." -- C.S. Lewis

Past history and present reality. It is by preaching that God makes past history a present reality. The cross was, and will always remain, a unique historical event of the past. And there it will remain, in the past, in the books, unless God himself makes it real and relevant to men today. It is by preaching, in which he makes his appeal to men through men, that God accomplishes this miracle. He opens their eyes to see its true meaning, its eternal value, and its abiding merit. --- John R.W.

The Reformation was not a break with the historic Church of Christ (catholic as in universal) but rather a cleansing and healing process within the ailing body of believers who were denied the clarity of the gospel and ready access to the teaching of the Bible as the ultimate authority for faith and comfort in the salvation wrought through Jesus Christ. The intent of the Reformation was benign, magnanimous, and pastoral.