Mayhue offers this helpful chart to distinguish between the two:

I found it interesting how Special revelation is what explains the purpose of General Revelation.  General revelation requires further explaination and science cannot explain it adequately nor accurately.  God exists is revealed to all mankind but to explain that God and to explain how to know Him, special revelation is required.

The Child in a relationship to God
Is your child in relationship to God? This is not the question about the child’s salvation but does your child live in a conscious need for God? What is the content of this relationship with God? Is there concern for love towards God? Is God considered a source of strength, comfort, and help?

Are there false gods before which your child bows? What things other than God seem to motivate him?

Does he ever talk about God? How does he talk about God? Is God small or grand?

The point of these questions is not to determine their comprehension of biblical truth but rather their understanding of the nature of God’s grace and salvation offered in Christ. The goal of these questions is to understand where they stand spiritually.

The Child in relationship to himself
How does your child think of himself?  How aware is he of his strengths and weaknesses?  Does he understand his personality?  Is he self-conscious about the propensities of his personality?  Do they let others easily manipulate them?  Do they bully others or do they let others win games so they will not be dissappointed?  We need to help our children see their unique strengths and weaknesses as something God has created them to be.

The Child in relationship to others
What are your child’s relationships?  How does he interact with others?  How does he deal with dissappointment in people?  How does he respond to being sinned against?  What are the areas of relational strength?  What are the weaknesses?

Tripp recommends that once or twice a year that parents should take stock in their children and place this grid in helping them evaluate the character issues that can be diagnosed through these simple questions.

Parenting will mean that you can’t do all the things that you could otherwise do. It will affect your golf handicap. It may mean your home does not look like a picture from Better Homes and Gardens. It will impact your career and ascent on the corporate ladder. It will alter the kind of friendships you will be available to pursue. It will influence the kind of ministry you are able to pursue. It will modify the amount of time you have for bowling, hunting, television, or how many books you read. It will mean that you can’t develop every interest that comes along. The costs are high… God calls you to invest yourself in this way with your children. This kind of communication is not just beneficial, it is mandated! It is the path of blessing because it is the path of obedience. Is this kind of communication expensive? Yes! But the benefits exceeds the cost.

1) The nature of temptation
2) Possible responses to temptation
3) Our sinful responses to temptation

He says wisely: “in this process you stand above both above him and beside him. You are above him becasue God has called you to a role of discipline and correction. You are beside him because you, too, are a sinner who struggles with anger towards others.”

1) You will read more. I don’t own any e-ink readers but I actually read faster and enjoy reading more on my KF than on regular books. The highlighting and note taking feature is fantastic. Along with the Kindle reader other apps such as Pulse, YouVersion, or Logos allow you to read more.

2) You’ll use less paper. Amazon allows you to convert Word, PDF, and TXT files into the Amazon reader format. Instead of printing out notes, ebooks, or teaching notes you can covert all of that into the Amazon reader.

3) Less bookshelf space is required. Since I’ve received my KF I’ve purchased 3 books. I’ve downloaded about 2 dozen free books or converted books. So many resources existing resources online can be easily converted to the Kindle reader format.

4) YouVersion for Bible reading is amazing. YV has over 200 bible reading plans and their reader app allows you to track your progress, highlight, create notes, and share notes. The YV reader does reward you for staying on track with the reading plan. I’m quickly reminded of the AWANA program as you receive various badges for the number of consecutive days you’ve stuck with the program, the number of highlights you’ve created, or by the number of notes you’ve published privately or publicly. Clearly this is not a KF specific reason but having no other Android device, this App on my Kindle Fire makes the purchase worth it.

5) The cost is $199. No 7″ tablet comes close to what the KF offers. I should add to #5 is that KF can easily be rooted. I’ve rooted many devices from routers, media devices, so that option is very valuable. If you’re not sure what that means then just consider the price point for the fifth reason.

“I would lay it down as a basic proposition that the primary task of the Church is not to educate man, is not to heal him physically or psychologically, it is not to make him happy. I will go further; it is not even to make him good. These are things that accompany salvation, and when the Church performs her true task she does incidentally educate men and give them knowledge and information, she does bring them happiness, she does make them good and better than they were. But my point is that those are not primary objectives. Her primary purpose is not any of these; it is rather to put man into the right relationship with God, to reconcile man to God.” MLJ Preaching and Preachers, pg30

The good doctor goes on to say that missing the true purpose will inevitably treat the symptom rather than cure the disease. The real damage occurs when the church tries to make people feel better who need a cure not relief from their symptoms.

“Better for the church to have peace in the next life than in this one. Better to proclaim the true gospel, with earthly divisions, than to abandon the gospel for spurious, humanly crafted unity.”
-Michael S. Horton, What still keeps us apart?

1) The Husband is not Christ
The husband is like Christ, which means he is not Christ. The husband is finite in strength, not omnipotent like Christ. The husband is finite and fallible in wisdom, not all-wise like Christ. The husband is sinful, not perfect like christ.

2) Conform to Christ Not to the husband
The aim for the godly husband’s desire for change in his wife is conformity to Christ, not conformity to himself. Eph 5:26 “that he[Christ] might sanctify her” Eph 5:27 “that he[Christ] might present the church to himself in splendor” These words sanctify and splendor imply our desires for our wives as measured by God’s standard of holiness, not our standard or personal preferences.

3) Dying for the Wife
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her.” Husband are to lead without lording over their wives. Husbands are not to self-exalt but to self-deny, just like Christ.

This Momentary Marriage by John Piper, pg 67

To help answer that question Nathan Glazer helpfully points out that Evangelical activity in the realm of politics should be understood as defensive not offensive.  He says

Abortion did not become an issue because Fundamentalists [and evangelicals] wanted to strengthen prohibitions against abortion, but because liberals wanted to abolish them… Pornography in the 1980s did not become an issue because Fundamentalists [and evangelicals] wanted to ban D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, or even Henry Miller, but because in the 1960s and 1970s, under-the-table-pornography moved to the top of the newstands.  Prayer in the schools did not become an issue because Fundamentalists [and evangelicals] wanted to introduce new prayers or sectarian prayers, but because the Supreme Court ruled against all prayers.   Freedom for religious schools became an issue not because of any legal effort to expand their scope, but because the Internal Revenue Service and various state authorities tried to impose restrictions on them that private schools had not faced before.

[cited from Roman Catholicism, Moody Bible Institute 1994, pg 191]

Jesus Hates Religion