When Alexander Crummell (1819-1898) was young, he was sent on an errand by an anti-slavery office in NYC. He overheard two prominent lawyers talking about a recent conversation with John Calhoun, a senator from South Carolina. In the senator's...
Shia LaBeouf (age 38) is an American actor and filmmaker. He was raised with Jewish as well as Christian influences but acknowledged in 2007 that "religion never made any sense to me." His struggle with alcohol addiction and a series of public...
C.S. Lewis married for the first time in his late 50's to a fellow writer, Joy Davidman. She contracted cancer shortly after they married and died three years later. Lewis kept a diary to chronicle his grief after her death, which he never intended...
People in the church often tell me they prefer the New Testament to the Old Testament. They find themselves more in sync with the New Testament God of love than the Old Testament God of wrath. Did God have a change of heart over time, or are we...
I had never heard of the African Colonization Society (ACS) before researching the originator of today's prayer. The ACS came into existence in America in 1816 to promote the manumission of enslaved and free blacks to West Africa. Not surprisingly,...
In the latter years of officiating at weddings in my former church, couples often asked if they could write their own vows. "Go ahead," I told them, "Have at it, but keep in mind it's harder than you think." Most couples attempted to write...
Racial segregation was the law of our land in the early 1900s. Churches followed suit, dividing along color lines. The Azusa Street Revival offered a marked contrast to this racial divide, a little glimpse into heaven. One eyewitness was so...
Labor Day began as a parade in New York City to honor working people in 1882. The idea took hold, and Congress passed a law in 1894 designating the first Monday in September as a national holiday. The reformer Martin Luther is credited with...
Some of you may be living in a storm. You may be dealing with a health crisis, a season of grief, or a family emergency. If you are not in a crisis right now, enjoy the reprieve. Jesus and his twelve disciples are traveling by boat on the Sea of...
It’s not surprising that pride, greed, anger, lust, envy, and gluttony make the 6th century Seven Deadly Sins list. But sloth? We commonly associate sloth with laziness but when Gregory the Great included sloth in his deadly sin list, he had other...
In a remote area of England is a tiny town called Rievaulx (pronounced Ree-voh), with a population of fifty people. It's a popular tourist attraction as visitors walk among the impressive ruins of a famous 12th-century monastery. The monastery was...
You’ve likely heard of George Frederic Handel, composer of the famous oratorio Messiah, but you may not know the name Charles Jennens (1700-1773). Without Jennens, there would be no Messiah. His contributions were so considerable that George...
Louise Degrafinried (1911-1998) and her husband Nathan lived in a small town outside Nashville. Nathan awoke one night to let the cat out, but the cat refused to leave the porch. Instead, he arched his back and hissed. "What do you see out there,...
The Football Association Challenge Cup (commonly called the F.A. Cup) is the English soccer equivalent of our American Super Bowl. It's played annually each May in Wembley Stadium before 90,000 frenzied soccer fans. It has been a century-old...
Food can assume exaggerated importance in our lives. Fasting is one way to bring these appetites under control. People in the Bible fast from food for all sorts of reasons. David fasts for the health of his gravely ill son. Esther fasts before she...
Peter Kreeft (1937-) has been a professor of philosophy for 38 years at Boston College. Among his 40+ books, he wrote A Prayer for Beginners. It is, as advertised, a simple, direct treatment of prayer for novices. Peter admits, after years of...
The Thirty Years War from 1618-1648 was one of the most destructive wars in European history. It started as a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics over religious freedom and escalated into a major political power struggle. Not quite...
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) was raised in a Christian family. His father and grandfather were both pastors. When he was 15, he decided to visit every place of worship in Colchester, England, to learn the way of salvation. On Sunday morning,...