Queen Elizabeth II recently made the first visit to Ireland by a reigning British monarch in 100 years.  Also, and in a highly unusual move, the Queen was accompanied by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Some want to know it all when it comes to the Bible. Having a right and balanced desire to learn and grow in scriptural knowledge is good. It can help us grow in our relationship with our Creator. But this same desire becomes lopsided when the emphasis is on trying to understand subjects where God has purposefully withheld key details, or where the Bible is simply silent. As we seek to learn more about God and His way of life, we need to learn how to seek and use knowledge rightly. How can we do this?

On May 10, 2011, the 2.3 million member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted to allow the ordination of practicing homosexual ministers, removing the requirement that they live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”  (CNN.com, “Presbyterian Church U.S.A. to allow gay and lesbian clergy,” May 10, 2011).

Have you been cut off in traffic lately? Have you ever been stopped at a red light, only to have the driver across from you turn in front of you the moment the light turns green, violating your right-of-way? Do you frequently find cars dangerously riding your rear bumper? Or perhaps you’re reading this thinking, “Well, I’m usually the one doing the tailgating, but that’s because the people in front of me always seem to be driving way too slow”?

A recent article in The Times (of London) read: “The bailouts don’t work but they do allow the EU to build up centralized power at the expense of nation states.”  The author continued, “The political motivation for tightening the debt yoke on Greece, Ireland and Portugal is even clearer.  By turning these countries into permanent debtors to the ECB [European Central Bank] and the various EU bailout funds, Brussels and Frankfurt are enormously increasing the power of centralized European institutions at the expense of nation states” (May 11, 2011).