As the nation approaches the fiscal cliff, with President Obama and the Republican Congress haggling over how to—and even whether or not to—avoid said cliff, it’s probably a good time to remind everyone that high taxes are something of a Christmas tradition. For it was in roughly 4 BC that a carpenter from Nazareth named …
It’s fun to study surnames, or last names, as distinguished from Christian names, or first names. Back in history, when things got crowded, they had to add second names to sort out all the people named John or James or Mary or Ruth. So they turned to four contextual features—location (as in Lois Hill); parentage …
I was sitting in an airport when I heard a television news anchor announce that General David Petraeus had resigned as director of the US Central Intelligence Agency because of an extramarital affair. Almost as troubling as the news itself though, was the reaction of a husband and wife sitting nearby. “Why did he have …
Q: I’ve heard the phrase “Christian hospitality” but am not sure what it means. What does God expect of me in the area of hospitality? A: Sometimes we wrongly equate hospitality with kindness in general, as in, “She’s so hospitable that she invited her brothers and sisters over for Thanksgiving.” While kindness to family and …
The signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence took pains to say they were not rebelling against Britain on a whim or petulantly, but that their break came after a “long train of abuses and usurpations,” of which they list over two dozen. Furthermore, they had “petitioned for redress in the most humble terms,” but …
Q: Does the Bible say anything about how Christians should approach political elections? I’ve been thinking about this recently in light of the U.S. presidential election. A: It’s a relevant question not only for U.S. voters, but for anyone living in a country with free elections. Fortunately, Scripture lays out some helpful principles in this …