Deflate-gate. For those who follow NFL football, the deflated football discovery in the Patriots/Colts game has created quite the stir. Eleven of the twelve Patriots’ footballs were below the acceptable air pressure—giving the Patriots certain advantages in the game—but no one has been able to pinpoint how they came to be that way. That’s the […]
“The extract of this fruit has nutritional properties that far exceed all others. If you take it daily, your life will never be the same!” So go the claims on just about every natural supplement website. But would you be surprised to know that there really is an ultimate super fruit? I’ve spent the past […]
Admittedly, there are days when I say to myself, “I can’t do this. The mountain in front of me is way too big to climb.” I strongly suspect that I am not alone in thinking this way. We all have days—maybe even seasons—when life seems really hard. When faced with such difficulties, we have a […]
Imagine that you wanted to sell a very large and beautiful diamond, but that you had a problem—there was a large gouge out of one side of the stone. What would you do? You would focus on the brilliance characteristics of the unmarred side of the gem. In a sense, this is what much of […]
The video feed was anything but pleasant; scores of teenagers mercilessly pummeling each other. It happened recently as fights broke out among a thousand young people who had flooded a mall near Pittsburgh. Employees had to bar and lock storefronts in order to protect themselves and their customers. If you haven’t seen any of the […]
The King of Glory came to earth apart from the religious establishment, born in a stable filled with manure and overrun by flies. Angels announced His birth to a group of lowly shepherds who likely smelled as bad as the animals they herded. For thirty years, the Son of God dwelt in obscurity in the […]
Grace is so integral to the Christian faith that people can sometimes fail to realize that the general concept is not unique to Christianity. In ancient secular Greek writings, the word charis essentially meant “that which delights.”[1] In this sense, grace could mean “a gift given” or “a favor done,” as well as “a sense […]
My wife and I took a cruise to Bermuda to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. I think it was the most relaxing vacation I’ve ever taken. No responsibilities. Nothing to cook. No concern about what a meal would cost. To top it all off, we received tremendous favor from the cruise staff. It’s really nice […]
Grace is one of the things that makes Christianity unique from every other religion. It’s understandable then that the topic of grace creates problems. Admittedly, I prefer to steer clear of controversial issues, but the extreme importance of grace compels me to wade into the swirling waters of contention. One of the biggest mistakes people […]
A “progressive” book publisher states that its focus is on, “progressive and mainline Christians who demand an open, inclusive, and culturally engaged exploration of faith . . .” I get what they’re trying to say, but have a very difficult time accepting the idea of what some are calling progressive Christianity. Some folks, it seems, are […]
