BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH • Time: 1070 BC • Place: Land of Israel • Spirit of the Age: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. —Judges 21:25 NKJV • Growing Crisis: A group of people known as the Philistines have brought their foreign gods and influence […]
Woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of an unseasonal thunderstorm. It’s unusual but not unheard of to have lightning and thunder with snow on the ground, in the middle of a Midwest winter. The rumbling skies reminded me of how an unseasonal storm was once used as a wake-up call […]
When a troubled Solomon tried to make sense of the times and seasons of life, he observed that “there’s a time to plant, and a time to harvest (Ecc 3:2). Got to thinking about how much of following Christ involves personally planting seeds of faith, hope, and love in the God whose story includes large […]
How can God allow the kinds of suffering and loss that are happening in and around us? In the darkness we hear a whisper that tells us that if we were God, we’d never let this happen. Repeatedly, doubts grow out of the thought that there are only 2 possibilities: Either God is good, but […]
In these health-minded times, we may have lost a proverb. It’s been a while since I’ve heard, “Whatever you do, keep your eye on the donut… and not on the hole.” Maybe switching to bagels could help us recover one of life’s most important lessons. From the beginning of time it’s been an issue. We […]
A friend of this blog sent me a YouTube link to a brief argument against those who consider themselves more moral than atheists. The thoughts that followed went something like this: Religious people often claim that atheists have no morals because they have no moral guide. It went on to say, for instance, if you’re […]
The Newtown, Connecticut, killing of 20 children and 6 adults once again raises mind-numbing questions. As is the case of any premature death, or tragic loss, there are no adequate answers for the grief and anger that follow. No attribution of mental illness, social pathology, cultural storming, demonizing, or finger-pointing can begin to fill the […]
A slang dictionary shows how the word “righteous” has often been used by young people to express their enthusiasm for something that meets with their approval. To some of us, using the word that way might sound irreverent. But the slang usage of “righteous” might actually do a better job of communicating the breadth of […]
Joe and Marissa have never met. But they have a lot in common. Both found that spending 4 years in a state university was hard on their faith. Marissa became a follower of Jesus at a spiritual retreat during her last year in high school. Joe made his decision of faith at the age of […]
Today is Yom Kippur. An article in the Washing Post describes what it means this year as a nation recognizes its sins, in the presence of its enemies. Also known as The Day of Atonement, this is a day of national repentance with a view toward national forgiveness and deliverance. I’ve often been moved by […]
