He is your Creator, Redeemer, Judge, Savior, and Friend. How well do you really know Him? “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
As soon as Russia launched the first volley into Ukraine, Christians began asking, Does the war in Ukraine fit into the end times events prophesied in the Bible? Is Russia Magog in Ezekiel 38? To put a finer point on it: Are we living in the last days? Scan social media, and you’ll find plenty of answers. Some answers come from balanced biblical exegetes (see here and here) and others from hot-headed conspiracy theorists twisting…
Recent research from LifeWay Christian Resources reveals that 91% of Americans celebrate Christmas. And nearly all of those (72%) agree that the holiday recognizes a real, historical event, the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Americans can tell the story with confidence. Only about 22% nod to that. But even so, most Americans embrace the facts of history, and that it happened the way…
William Shatner spent three seasons as Capt. James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek TV series. But pretending to be a space traveler doesn’t compare to the real thing. October 13 Shatner rocketed from earth for 11 minutes and traveled 66 miles as one of the crew of four on Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin rocket, making him the oldest person in history to journey into space. And when Shatner emerged from the space capsule,…
In May, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert interviewed Ringo Starr as the former Beatle approached his 81st birthday. In the segment called “The Colbert Questionert,” he asked Starr a series of mundane and trivial questions designed to evoke deep and thoughtful answers. Of course, the whole thing was for comedic effect, so the questions were things like “Best sandwich?,” What is the scariest animal?,” “Most used app on your phone?,” and “What number am…
In mid-March, archeologists uncovered a fresh fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It is a small piece around 2,000 years old, and it bears a verse from a Greek translation of the Old Testament prophets. The first batch of the Dead Sea Scrolls was discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin herder who tossed a rock into a cave and heard a cracking sound. He investigated and found…
This divisive, messy election is nearly over. Almost. Sort of. And it seems that all we have done lately is fight about our political alliances. How can we go on from here? Where can we get perspective? The same place we always do. From Jesus. People constantly asked Jesus questions. Questions about faith, about religion, and, yes, about politics. And for good reason. He could take the waffling faith of the doubter and give it…
Remember where you were when you heard the news? I was sitting in my basement office at Bethel Baptist Church, a lovely country church on a crossroad in Westminster, SC. I was preparing for a funeral, pressed for time and not in the mood for much conversation, when someone banged on my door. I didn’t answer quickly enough, so the person knocked again, and without waiting opened the door. A local farmer stuck his head…
On July 6, CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon were defending the destruction of statues in America when Lemon offered a strange comparison between Christian devotion to Christ and America’s reverence of the Founders, “But here’s the thing,” he claimed, “Jesus Christ, if that’s who you believe in, Jesus Christ, admittedly was not perfect when he was here on this earth. So why are we deifying the Founders of this country? Many of whom owned…
Racism isn’t new. It’s as old as sin itself. And it violates two of the most basic truths in the Bible. When Jesus confronted racism, He focused on these two truths. Even Jesus grew up in a culture slimed with racism. In His day, the Jews nurtured a 700-year-old prejudice against the Samaritans. Generations before Jesus, the Samaritans were kin of the Israelites. Their kingdom split in 922 BC, and some of the Israelites went…
The tragic death of 2-year-old Olive Heiligenthal on December 14 rattled the Christian community of Bethel Church in Redding, CA. And their prayers for her resurrection ignited a national conversation. At the time, blogs, news reports, and the church’s own social media provided exhaustive coverage. And as I read these reports and blogs, I noticed that in the clamor to condemn or condone something critical was either brushed past too quickly or ignored altogether. So,…