G7 leaders meet in Europe to lay strategy for keeping their global reach strong! China drives to overtake a receding American empire! Russia presses to recover its clout! Dominance–-economic, political and military–-is the name of this game, and always has been for empires. “Make America great again” in recent years was not a call for…
Category: Early Church
Resurrection hope amidst pandemic
Christians had confidence that others did not: Christ rose from the grave, and death is not the end.
Liars, brutes, and lazy gluttons?
“Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons,” said the apostle Paul in his letter to Titus (1:12). My wife and I found no evidence of such dereliction when we traveled across Crete. We stopped along a mountain road to watch the grape harvest, and a farmer approached our car. With a gracious bow he…
Grace for a marginalized man
A foreigner from a sexually marginalized group was one of the first Gentiles to receive baptism in the name of Jesus (Acts 8:26-40). The new believer, from the court of the queen of Ethiopia, was a eunuch—a castrated male. Often made so as children without their consent, eunuchs functioned as administrators and servants for rulers…
Let me sleep when I die
When my earthly sojourn ends, please say that I died, not that I “passed.” The latter happens to footballs and, well . . . to gas. Aversion to death makes our culture prefer euphemism, but followers of Jesus acknowledge death and resurrection at the center of our faith. We name them, and do not fear…
Giving the knee to Jesus as Lord
American football players protesting racism recently gave the knee instead of standing at attention during a performance of the United States national anthem, triggering a Twitter storm from the president of the country and a cloudburst of editorial commentary. The wave of athletic protest began when a player named Colin Kaepernick, wanting to call…
Holy Lands Peace Pilgrim 