I've heard it said that everyone has a book in them. Christopher Hitchens once commented in a C-SPAN discussion on new book releases, "Everybody has a book in them which is exactly where it should, in most cases, remain." Some books are better left...
The city council of Geneva banished John Calvin (1509-1564) from his church. Let's just say, it's complicated! John was invited to lead a church of French refugees in Strasbourg. Jean and Idelette Stordeur, who also fled religious persecution, were...
Aiden Wilson (A.W.) Tozer (1897-1963) traveled by train in the early 1940s on a speaking engagement in Texas from his Chicago home. Once he commenced writing, he couldn't put it down. He wrote furiously all night long. By the time the train pulled...
William Cowper (pronounced Cooper) suffered a mental breakdown in 1763 and was sent to St. Albans Insane Asylum in England. Six weeks into his stay, he found a Bible on a bench left by his doctor. William read with fascination the story of Jesus...
The plane in which Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961) was traveling crashed in 1961, claiming all sixteen passengers on board. Debate continues to this day whether the accident was the result of pilot error or the work of assassins to thwart his...
A young Bedouin shepherd tended sheep in a remote mountainous area near the Dead Sea. He came upon a small opening to a cave. Cautious about entering its dark interior, he threw a stone into the cave and was startled to hear clay pots breaking. He...
Every Friday afternoon at 3:00 (about the time most of us are shutting down the work week), the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon met with pastors-in-training on some aspect of the pastoral craft. His presentations were not dry academic lectures but...
Bishop Philotheos (his name means "friend of God") was rummaging through old documents in a monastery in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1873. He discovered a cache of old Greek manuscripts in the library bound as a single volume and signed "Leon, notary and...
Jay Panini has been for many years Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College in Vermont. He describes a melancholy time in his early life as a graduate student at Oxford University in England. After a day of tedious research...
Areopagus was the name given to the most iconic hill in Athens, Greece. This elevation of limestone, also called Mars Hill, was where the supreme council convened to hear important judicial cases. It was also a popular gathering place for people to...
God can change people. I have experienced it. I have witnessed it, and surely the people in these daily prayer posts could attest to it. We also resist change. Change brings fear and discomfort. A.W. Auden said it well, "We would rather be ruined...
He was, by most accounts, rather eccentric. More sophisticated preachers accused him of saying odd things and using unrefined illustrations in his sermons. In his defense, the great preacher Charles Spurgeon said of him, "What a lump of quaintness...
It was an obsession that lasted fifty years. Old Gaelic (Celtic) songs and hymns were about to disappear from the living history of the Scottish people. An over-zealous religious establishment sought to suppress these ancient prayers, dismissing...
"Faith without works is dead" (James 2.17). Nothing subtle about it! George MacLeod (1895-1991) served churches in poor sections of Glasgow, Scotland. He was troubled by how little the church addressed the plight of working people. He embarked on...
We need to talk about boredom in relation to prayer. We lose our appetite for prayer, slack off from reading the Bible, and spiritual lethargy sets in. We become bored with the things of God. This is not a problem unique to our age. A...
I referenced C. S. Lewis so often in my sermons that one friend in my congregation claimed I had a man crush on Lewis. Austin Farrer (1904-1968) wasn't a name I had associated with Lewis until recently. Austin was a chaplain at several colleges in...
George Croly (1780-1860) served a country parish and wrote poetry and novels on the side. One contributor to his literary magazine eventuated as his wife. He was asked by church leaders in 1835 to consider the challenging assignment of reopening...
I recall a visit with my father not long before he died. He was sitting in his easy chair, eyes closed, surrounded by my wife, his caregiver, and me. We were discussing the onerous task of remembering our various passwords, assuming my dad was not...