When we sing about heaven, we typically, and with good warrant, focus on life in the presence of our Creator and our Savior, of freedom from want and strife and suffering, of fellowship with the saints. We sing of a place with “Not a shadow, not a sigh” (When We All Get to Heaven); where …
For about a year now, I’ve served as interim pastor for a church up by the Ohio River. Who knew when I started last December that we would go into state-by-state shutdowns of various proportions for the vast majority of that time. It’s certainly been a voyage of discovery. Like many churches, we’ve had to …
Rahab stuck her neck out to help the two spies Joshua dispatched to reconnoiter Jericho, and she’s duly honored later in Hebrews 11’s “Faith Hall of Fame.” Though, as revealed in Joshua 2, she lied to city authorities to protect the undercover Israelites, these courageous men of God didn’t rebuke her for speaking falsehood. Rather, …
David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.” Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and …
In 2008, Times columnist Matthew Parris wrote a surprising piece entitled, “As an Atheist, I Truly Believe Africa Needs God.”[i] He built part of his case on first impressions: Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: …
National immigration policy is front and center in public discourse around the world, most prominently in the West, to which many are fleeing. In a presidential election season, Americans are sharply divided over what should be done about the millions of illegal or “undocumented” residents coming from the south. Europe is trying to cope with …