Philip Friesen

HELL O!

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. Mark 9:43 When a limb of a soldier injured in battle become gangrenous, it has been common in the past to cut off the infected limb so that the infection would not take the life of the soldier. This is the picture Jesus gives us here. It is one of a...

Philip Friesen

LOVING UNTO DEATH: A Question of Values

Returning from the airport with an international high school student named Chen I had an opportunity for witness to my Lord. The conversation had turned to some aspects of Chinese history, which is a topic of interest to me. Chen mentioned what a great hero was the Emperor Chin Shi Huang who unified China around 200 years before Christ following the period of warring states. Emperor Chin was a bloody man...

Philip Friesen

In Bed With Tom, My Experience with “Gay”

  In 1983 I began considering the possibility that two men or two woman committed to each other by marriage vows might just be a good idea. At that time this thought was a new idea of mine. I had never heard it mentioned by anyone else, but it soon became clear that a lot of other people were thinking the same thing.   My friendship with a homosexual man named Tom had a great deal to do with...

Philip Friesen

The Foundation, Meaning, and Purpose of Marriage According to Jesus

SUMMARY Marriage is the basic human social unit and the first human institution. It is the first fundamental reality that establishes a person’s identity due to the fact that every person has parents. To reach its fullest potential, marriage requires three elements 1. Sexual activity restricted to the marriage relationship 2. An irrevocable commitment 3. The involvement of one man and one woman These...

Philip Friesen

Chinese Parable from Matt. 17

One day, Dr. Sun Yat Sen ,  Mao Tse Tung, Chiang Kai Shek-Shek, , and Jesus went on a journey together to visit Tai Shan mountain in Shandong Province. As they neared the top, suddenly Jesus’ face began to glow with heavenly joy, and Mao, Chiang, and Sun saw Lao Tsu and Confucius walking towards them, while Jesus engaged them in conversation as though meeting long lost friends. Dr. Sun cautiously...