Today is the last day of the Jewish cycle of Fall Holidays (Holy Days). Tonight ends the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in which Jewish people erect small shelters to remember how they lived off of the provisions of God during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Yesterday, in a modern expression of this […]
After spending two and ½ sweltering days doing video production in the Galilee, we returned this afternoon to Jerusalem for the duration of our visit to Israel. Yesterday the humidity was so high that the fog rolled in during the night and stayed all day creating a feeling of mystery on waters without a horizon. […]
During this current visit to Jerusalem I’ve been thinking a lot about an ancient prophecy of Zechariah. The fact that unfolding political complications between Israel and Arab neighbors continue to be a problem for international peace has me reading again a prediction that in the last days Jerusalem will become a burden for the nations […]
Back in Jerusalem to tape a series of Day of Discovery Bible Lands programs, we arrived just in time for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), one of the most solemn holy days of the Jewish calendar. During the 25 hours of fasting, prayers, and confession, the streets of Jerusalem were eerily quiet. Even secular people […]
Who would doubt that, all too often, we are our own worst enemy? Without minimizing the great harm that others can do to us, and to those we love, who can deny the damage that we do by refusing to forgive ourselves for the foolish and hurtful things we have done– even after admitting that […]
Just before Labor Day, I took a few days off work and decided to spend some time trying to brush up a rusty golf swing. What I saw when I got to the range made me laugh. A family of wild turkeys seemed to have concluded that the safest place in the world isn’t in […]
Revelation, the last book in the Bible, begins with a few statements that sound like other letters of the New Testament (1:1-8). Then comes a vision of a resurrected Jesus that is as disturbing as it is reassuring (1:9-20). Seven letters to seven real first century churches follow. They too have messages that are both […]
We live in a world of time and space. Space, I suppose makes sense to us. To be anything at all, everyone and everything needs to be somewhere. But why time? With its cycles, seasons, and holidays, could time be reminding us that, even when we are sitting, we are actually in motion, as if […]
In many ways, followers of Christ emphasize the importance of being right—even to a fault. But there is at least one area in which this pattern doesn’t seem to hold. Although there are more options, let’s consider three approaches to the way we view the prophetic teaching of Scripture: The first group is inclined to […]
Just hours before Jesus’ death, He promised His disciples, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14 NKJV). Two thousand years later, those words continue to echo around the world. Millions of us will end our prayers today “in Jesus’ name.” But what about the promise? If we consider ourselves […]
