Jesus said that by faith his disciples could move trees and even mountains (Luke 17:5; Mark 11:22-23). His words remind us of other things we find in the Bible. If we start with Genesis and read through to Revelation, we see some pretty amazing miracles. Moses lifts a stick, and the Red Sea parts. The […]
He was known in the small town where he grew up for breaking the county high school pole-vault record. Strong-willed by temperament, he also had a reputation for being a troublemaker. When he let it be known at the age of 17 that he had decided to become a follower of Christ, the community took […]
The phrase sounds self-contradictory. But I think it helps to capture what the Bible tells us about the forgiving rescue and kingdom of God. Many of us would say that we already know Christ, but not yet as we will in the future. The Apostle Paul teaches us to think this way in his famous […]
Like Jesus, the Apostle Paul sets high standards for entering the kingdom of God. In his first letter to the Corinthians he writes: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites…will inherit the kingdom of […]
A new convert to the Christian faith wonders how to fulfill his duty to God. An older and seasoned follower says, “Love God with all of your heart and then love your neighbor as yourself. Do these things, and you will fulfill your obligation to God.” Another seasoned Christian joins the conversation saying, “Yes, focus […]
What is it? Looking like it was stitched together with the spare parts of other creatures, the Platypus has the body of a beaver and the face of a duck. According to a Yahoo featured article out of Paris today, when specimens from Australia arrived in Europe in the 18th century, biologists thought they were […]
Can a child of God “take authority” over the devil? Can we, by our prayers and appeals to the blood of Christ, “bind” the evil one? Or are such thoughts echoes of what the New Testament author Jude referred to when he said that even Michael the archangel didn’t dare to rebuke Satan but said, […]
To love well, we must also learn to hate. Some of what we hate, we must learn to love. Much of what comes easy will be difficult to endure. Some of what comes with work will give us rest. Riches are discovered in seeing our real poverty. Safety in a place of risk. More in […]
I don’t like to think about how many times I’ve told someone “I’ll be praying for you,” before only following through in a token way. And when I have prayed repeatedly for those I really care about– with no apparent results– I sometimes wonder why I don’t seem to be able to touch the heart […]
In the middle of an election year, with gas prices rising, the market falling, and the human costs of war constantly on our mind, I’ve been thinking of how inclined I am to live by the numbers. In so many ways numbers, statistics, and polls can be deceiving. On one hand, we need to measure […]
