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. ...
It’s not surprising that pride, greed, anger, lust, envy, and gluttony make the sixth 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...
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 twelfth century monastery. The monastery...
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 Charles Jennens, there would be no Messiah. His contributions were so considerable that...
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 FA 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 thirty-eight years at Boston College. Among his forty books, he wrote A Prayer for Beginners. It is, as advertised, a simple, direct treatment of prayer for novices. Peter admits, after...
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 fifteen, he decided to visit every house of worship in Colchester, England, to learn the way of salvation. On Sunday morning,...
You can make the Bible say most anything you want. Here's how it works. Extrapolate a passage from its immediate context, ignore its original intent, and exploit it to suit your own agenda. The practice is called proof-texting, and it's lethal in...
When our children were young, they loved watching Sesame Street. True confession: I enjoyed watching it with them. The puppets are simply the best. Forgetful Jones, dressed in cowboy attire with his girlfriend Clementine, were among my favorites....
Doubt gets a bad rap in church circles. To my way of thinking, unbelief is the antithesis of faith, not doubt. Doubt is somewhere in the middle, suspended halfway between belief and unbelief. Doubt can go either way. There are two kinds of doubt in...
It may be the most widely distributed sermon of the twentieth century. Robert Boyd Munger (1911-2001) first preached his "My Heart--Christ's Home" sermon at the Berkeley Presbyterian Church in California in 1949. It was published a few years later...