By Faith Magazine

Lately, reading time has been severely limited. School has a LOT of reading in this unit, well, entire year really. Gracen is totally capable of reading alone and she does quite often. Maybe it's the book lover in me or maybe it's just the fact that my girl still likes to cuddle on the love seat and have read aloud time, but I'm not one to turn down an opportunity to read with her. There's not a lot of time left to read for pleasure for myself. Until then, my "to be read" stack grows in anticipation of the day when I'll be able to sit and read for uninterrupted hours on end--yeah, right!

Anyway, during this time of not much reading time, I have discovered magazines. Not just any old magazine, mind you, but a good one. The top of the list is a little gem called By Faith. It's put out by the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). The last two issues, particularly, have been chock-full of really good, thought provoking articles that are very well written.

A quick run down of the titles:
Urban Paradox--Reconnecting Church and City
The Chief End of Animals Part 2 by Michael D. Williams
Theology for Ordinary Life--The Political Views of Some Twenty and ThirtySomethings
May Surprise Their Leaders
Making Poverty Less Permanent
Created for Community

And those are just the ones that are in the first half of the magazine, roughly.

I haven't read it cover to cover, yet. The article about animals was really interesting to me. As an animal lover and mother to a (pardon the pun) rabid animal lover, this one spoke volumes to me.

In our culture we hear so much about animals and the environment. Adopting lots of pets and being "green" are very popular right now. It seems necessary for Christians not only to care about these subjects and hold some sort of opinion about them but to also have valid reasons for them.

I'm going to share a few excerpts from the article in the hopes that it will provoke some thoughts and also that it may whet your appetite to check out this magazine. (The website does have some great articles up; the last time I checked this one wasn't up yet. )

"The uniqueness of man--the one creature made in God's image
(Genesis 1:26)--is not primarily to distinguish him from the
animals; rather, it is to call him to a special role as caretaker.
We bear God's image in order to serve His purpose, which is to
"have dominion over" the other creatures. As image-bearers
we're to imitate His governance, ruling over the animals with
wisdom, respecting their dignity, and allowing them to
function in ways appropriate to their natures."

"Humane treatment doesn't mean we treat animals as if they
were human. It means we treat animals as though we are
human."

"Animals possess dignity because God created them. And while
Scripture warns us against worshiping creation (Deut. 4:19),
we must, at the same time, recognize it for what it is: the handiwork
of God. If man's role is to reproduce God's attitude toward His works,
then we should treat His possessions with honor. As Schaeffer once
declared, "Loving the Lover who made it, I have respect for
the thing He has made." Conversely, to abuse, pollute, and destroy
the natural order is to trample on the goodness of God reflected in creation."