Ilie and his sister Deborah are survivors of “The Night of Broken Glass.” In their book, An Uncommon Journey, they describe the fear they felt as they hid from the soldiers who had been ordered to ransack Jewish businesses and synagogues. They say they also will never forget the kindness of Alois, a young military […]
A BBC African news story tells how four Kenyan villagers out ran and then captured alive two cheetahs that had been killing their goats.The owner of the goats said that the large cats had returned repeatedly to kill 15 of his animals. So how could these men run down, on foot, the fastest animals in […]
Does the whole Bible really help to tell the story of Jesus? I found this 2 minute answer by Tim Keller fascinating. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmnSnNC8UJk Then earlier this week, a friend passed along a video link of a musical presentation by Sam Robson. Seems to me that it expresses so well what can happen when inspired words […]
As Job becomes increasingly upset with his friends for what they are saying—and with God for his silence—suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, Job expresses a hope that looks like a small cameo appearance of Jesus in an otherwise lengthy, angry, and hopeless debate. Text: Job 19:21–27 (NIV) 21“Have pity on me, my friends, have […]
In another day and age, the victims of a catastrophic storm like Typhoon Haiyan would have gone unnoticed by most of the world. But today the images and eyewitness accounts stream to us in almost real time. A BBC news report says,”Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from […]
An article on the Geekosystem website says that a professor from the University of Manchester, has published a paper suggesting that students of literature have been misinterpreting the first line of the old English, heroic epic poem Beowulf for 200 years. The article was too complex to draw me into the debate. But I understood […]
In the TV series Elementary, a modern remake of Sherlock Holmes, I find an interesting bit of dialogue in an episode called The Rat Race. Detective Holmes is talking to Watson about something that Watson, played by Lucy Liu, says she hasn’t noticed before. Holmes asks Watson about a recent date. She tells him how […]
In 19th-century America, a generation of oppressed slaves sang a spiritual about “Jacob’s Ladder.” The repetitive, rhythmic lyrics about climbing higher and higher helped them envision themselves on a hard journey to a better place. The original story is about a great ladder reaching up to heaven, and it’s as down-to-earth as the man who […]
If there is a progression in Jesus’ Declaration of a New Day, then hungering and thirsting for righteousness bears the seeds of what he says next. “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” (Matt 5:7) Showing up for this Operation Rescue is an indication of having seen the undeserved relief of misery that […]
Along the way, we’ve talked among ourselves about what happens when others hear us refer to righteousness —as if those who believe in Jesus are morally good people while those outside of him are not. We probably self-describe like this because that’s the way the Bible speaks of us. We find it natural to think […]
