Veritas Magazine

 God is love. The bible is a love story. The entire story is a novel of God’s love for us and his desire for us to love him in return.

The fullness of love was shown in Christ. While I was in the midst of the most horrible sin, Christ died for me (Romans 5:8). In his compassion he made a sacrifice and justice was paid for by his soul. His love for me is sacrificial. It requires nothing of me–except that I love him in return.

And God has asked us to love others in the same way....
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I want to be someone. 

I was reminded of this as I was perusing thepioneerwoman.com last week, and became envious. A thirty-something woman—who left ambitions of a law degree and big-city life to settle down with a cattle rancher in Oklahoma—has managed to have an interesting enough life that thousands of people read her daily updates.

This woman has it all together. She not only home schools her four children, she cooks the high-calorie/old fashioned way, gardens, takes amazing photographs, and helps hold down the ranch–literally. In doing all of these things, she has enough...
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I am put back in my place every time I hear the story of someone who is killed because they refuse to stop preaching the gospel.

Last Friday, MSNBC released a story about Ri Hyon Ok, a North Korean woman who was publicly executed for distributing Bibles. Her family has been taken to a national prison camp.

Ri believed that the gospel was real. She new that her country needed to hear about salvation. She believed that without salvation through Christ, hell is inevitable. She wasn’t afraid to go against a corrupt dictator to get God’s...
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My mom was born 60 years ago. That’s a pretty big deal. She has seen a lot in her life. She remembers where she was when Kennedy was shot. She was in New York in the summer of 1969—she saw Neil Armstrong in the Ticker Tape Parade, and could have made it to Woodstock if she had wanted to. She marched in a war protest or two at college. She got married, a few years later my sisters and I joined the Bouskas.

I am very thankful for my mom. She has shown more steadfast, unconditional love to me than...
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As the world sits stunned at Michael Jackson’s death, it brings up the most important question that we ask: Why are we here?

I am flipping through late night TV and every news and entertainment channel is covering his death. After all, he is the king of pop—so they say. Sheryl Crow has become his spokesperson, having been a backup singer 20 years ago. She attributes his life to the legacy that he leaves with “his moves.” “He created something that was never seen before, and that is remarkable.” Though this is true, is that all that Michael had...
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Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise. Psalm 106:24

I am constantly battling my fickle mind. I can be perfectly content…even more than content one minute. I can rejoice in the blessings he has given me and the opportunities I have to serve him. Then in the next minute, in a bi-polar fashion, I am suddenly dissatisfied. I see something that someone has that I want. Sometimes I just want to be someone else. 

So, when I become discontent, Psalm 106 says that I am not having faith...
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My number one time-waster in life is deciding what I should do. I waiver back and forth constantly about what I should do—to the point that I can’t actually do either option because I wasted all of my time deliberating between the two. It doesn’t matter how large or small the decision I have to make is, I am indecisive.

But last week all of this changed. I decided that I needed a new computer. The fact that my four-year-old laptop has recently slowed to snail-like pace, and the fact that I can’t turn it off...
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First, you must understand that I avoid pop culture at all cost. I don’t own a TV, I don’t have any interest in celebrities or anything having to do with Hollywood. Most of my TV watching consists of The Food Network and Jon and Kate Plus 8 (but only when I am at my parents' house).

So it was a surprise to me to see the commercial for the Jon and Kate Plus 8 season premier last weekend, which showed the two exasperated parents and a nearly destroyed marriage. Apparently people had known about this for a while…but...
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Confession: I don’t have much faith.

The song “God of this City” is the new big thing—and I like it, too. I have a heart for Des Moines. I love Jesus. I want other people to know Jesus. But as we sang this song at church this weekend, I was challenged by the lyrics, “Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city.”

I am challenged because I have seen God do incredible things throughout the last eight years here in Des Moines. I was a part of a...
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I happen to be one of the most selfish people I have ever met. I know that—and so does my sister. She remembers every ridiculous thing I have done. Even better, she tells the incredibly embarrassing (but completely true) stories to people we meet for the first time.

So, as my sister told stories from the not-so-distant past to my cousin’s girlfriend recently, all I wanted to do was justify myself—or, even better, lie and say it didn’t happen. I wanted to save face. I wanted her to think that I was actually a good person.

...
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Moses and God have an amazing relationship. Moses would take retreats, 40 days at a time, to hang out with God on Mount Sinai. “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Exodus 33:11.

And Moses was the only one who had this intimate relationship with God. It was Moses’ job to speak on behalf of the people, to plead with God for their lives. He could approach God with big requests. He says, “Please show me your ways, that I may know you in order...
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God’s name: I AM.  And I quote, “I am who I am”.

That is remarkable. He just is. He cannot be changed, altered, fixed. What he is, he is.

Everything he claims to be, he is—despite whether we believe it or not. We cannot change who he is. He cannot change who is. He is. He is reality. He is.

He is more real than the chair I am sitting in. He is more real than the walls of this building. He is more real than my perceptions,...
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Cleaning becomes a lot more appealing when it is a holiday, so every year my roommate and I celebrate Scrubadubdub Day. This is the day that you get into the nooks and crannies. This year, I was in charge of the kitchen; my roommate the bathroom and dusting.

I started the job with fervor. I took everything out of the cupboards to clean them out. I scrubbed the stovetop to rid the surface of charred remnants. I cleaned the top of the fridge (which I never see because I am so short). I tackled the microwave,...
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I started reading about Job yesterday. He had everything: a great family, lots of livestock, and lots of wealth. And then God allows it all to be taken because God is confident that Job will stand firm in his faith.

Job’s response to his family’s murder and the desolation of everything he owns: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job knew the secret of enduring trials: Have an eternal perspective. He knew...
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I sat through a seminar about procrastinating at a conference I was at last week. Though the speaker had a pneumonic device to overcome procrastinating, I walked away from the teaching knowing that I simply needed to face my fear. Every example he used from his life mentioned that he was scared by the task at hand.

A woman at my church once told me, “Dreading is worse than doing.” Yet even though I repeat these words over and over in my head, I still let fear get in the way of my life.
...
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One of my favorite days of the year is the day of the church Christmas program. All of those little kids screaming Christmas songs, girls in velvet dresses, the boys in sweater vests. They wave to their parents and pick their noses on stage.

But my favorite part of these programs isn’t the cute little kids. Nope, I love watching the adults helping shuffle the kids on and off stage; the children’s program director, and the adult choir director and the members of the choir; the piano player, and the people who put many, many hours...
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My roommate and I met two 16-year-old girls at the mall last week. They were typical sophomores in high school: braced teeth, clad in trendy clothes. A smattering of their clique meandered about the mall. (What else is there to do in West Des Moines on a Wednesday night?) And so we met Alisha and Courtney.

We asked them questions about their background and then segued into Christmas to bring up spiritual conversation. So we asked, “What is the real meaning of Christmas?”

Alisha thought really hard and then responded as if...
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I am a sucker for Christmas. I spent the weekend turning my apartment into a winter wonderland. I listened to Christmas music and marveled at the snow falling. It was a quintessential experience.

And every Christmas, I remind myself of the true meaning of the holiday by reading this passage:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
 Who, being in very nature God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
 but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature of a...
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I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last week or so thinking about what makes my faith work. Why do I live the way that I do? What are the fundamental convictions that direct my day-to-day and moment-by-moment actions? When I am tempted, what are the basic beliefs that direct whether or not I will choose to sin?

Various thoughts roamed around my head for a few days. Finally, I stayed up late one night to get them on paper (or in a Word document). It ended in a 1,474-word manifesto of sorts that referenced...
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One of the first things I read yesterday morning was a CNN article about Mormons baptizing Holocaust victims. I was repulsed by the audacity of the Church of Latter-Day Saints to have such a practice, and also to trivialize the horrific and tragic events of the Holocaust.

Though Mormons and a Holocaust group are negotiating a plan to stop this practice, the practice itself is so contrary to what Christ teaches us about salvation. The basis of the belief of the posthumous baptism is that it reunites people with their loved ones in heaven… even...
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God cares about our leadership. What the president of our country believes about life, the family, and the constitution matters and affects Joe the plumber, you, and me. Read through Kings and Chronicles to see God's attention to the leaders' personal fear of the Lord. You can also see his reaction: blessing when the kings revere God, and judgment upon pride and idol worship.

You should vote, and as Christians it is important to vote in a manner that will give your children and grandchildren the right to openly share the Gospel (a great act of love)...
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In the last three days, I have managed to see two of the most thrilling cinematic masterpieces of the year: High School Musical 3 and Fireproof. Though both earn high scores on the cheese factor, they provide an interesting study of culture.

One of the most prominent thoughts that ran through my mind during High School Musical was, I am so glad I haven’t been in high school for years.

Disney did a great job painting a picture of a utopian high school experience. Everyone is beautiful. They can sing, dance, and...
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It is 10:27 on Thursday night. I am depressed. As I browse the headlines of some of my favorite news sources, this is what I find going on in the world:

50 high school students contracted HIV in suburban St. Louis

Baby eats crack cocaine at a party

San Francisco working to legalize prostitution

Wave of job cuts sweeps across America

Not to mention– the markets keep falling all over the world. Everyone is scared. Every day there is a photo of a shocked NYSE...
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This weekend ended my fall wedding mayhem. In the last six weeks, I attended five weddings. (I was invited to a sixth but wasn’t able to make it.) For these weddings, I was once a bridesmaid, once a guestbook attendant, and twice I had to cross state lines early on Saturday morning to complete the double-header wedding weekend.

But as I’ve enjoyed these weeks of wedding madness, I’ve had time to think about marriage and even the value of weddings. This is what I like about the big day:

*I’ve been reminded that...
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In John 5, Jesus is hanging out near a pool where the blind, lame, and crippled were hanging out, wishing and hoping to be healed when the water was stirred. One of these people was a man who had been laying there a long time—38 years to be exact.

The man who was crippled gets up, and for the first time in 38 years, he can walk.

Later, Jesus finds the man at the temple and says, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
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I was driving by a church sign this week that quoted the famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13:6. “Love does not rejoice in evil, but rejoices in the truth.”

I’ve read this chapter countless times, but it was this drive-by encounter with this snippet of scripture that had me thinking about evil and truth for a few blocks.

After reading the sign, I was reminded of the deceptiveness of tolerance. Tolerance is seen as a means to love. Tolerance says if you let people do what they want, what they feel is right,...
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As I drove through downtown Portland, Oreg., a couple of years ago, there was a PETA protest outside of a fur coat store. In the floor-to-ceiling windows were huge signs that said “PETA SALE! ENTIRE STORE 50% OFF!”   Many people were carrying their new coats out of the store. I’ve often thought back on the clever interaction between activism and a free market economy (and cheered for the fur store).

It is ironic that there is such a fight for the value of animal’s rights when we don’t respect the rights of humans. This week the vice...
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As I watched the stock market plummet on Wednesday, I was reminded about what Jesus teaches on investing. He told us to store up our treasures in heaven as opposed to storing them on the earth where moth and rust (and the real-estate bubble) destroy.

The volatility of our economy is a good check on what our hope is in. Is my security in the fact that I have some cash sitting in a bank? Is my hope in the fact that my 401k will yield enough to give me a comfortable retirement in forty years?Read More

Since my sister got married last weekend in Minnesota, I happened to be in St. Paul just in time for the Republican National Convention. I didn’t attend the actual convention, but last Thursday, a friend and I managed to make our way downtown for the excitement of being a part of the hubbub. Our timing was perfect: we drove into the city just as the convention ended and got stuck in traffic—exactly what we were going for.

Though we did give Rudy Giuliani the old head nod, we found out the next day that we missed...
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It just so happens that I am in the middle of one of the busiest weeks of my life. I am working on launching veritasmag.com, there are three weddings that desire my design services, and my full-time job requires more of me than normal. The result is little sleep, and a lot of God’s grace.

I woke up yesterday in my normal routine. Shower, get dressed, read the Bible. I was reading Lamentations, which is some pretty sobering stuff. It isn’t the most encouraging experience to read Jeremiah’s laments over the Babylonian invasion of his homeland....
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On a recent family vacation to northern Minnesota, my family and I took a pontoon ride around Burntside Lake, a ten-mile-long lake with rocky shores and hundreds of islands. Many of the islands house cabins that can only be accessed by boat or by seaplane.

The sun was setting on the silver water that was so clear that you could see 20 feet down. But as...
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No one likes war. We are horrified at the lives taken in battle, at times seemingly all for the sake of some diplomatic maneuvers. Some people adhere “Visualize Whirled Peas” bumper stickers to their Volvo station wagons. Others stand in Nolan Plaza with signs protesting the war.

The Olympics have been the picture of world unity since 1896, the year of the first modern games....
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