Romans 1 ended with a long catalog of human wickedness. Chapter 2 begins with the recognition that we might hear such a list as condemning others but excusing ourselves. As a Jew, Paul had heard...
In 1818, in the tiny town of Oberndorf, Austria, a song was sung commemorating a special day. Today that same song is performed all over the world. It's been translated into more than two hundred...
God is a God of second chances—no matter what you and I have done or will do.
Ralph Winter produced the Star Trek and X-Men movies. One time, on a location shoot, his director lost focus when the frappacinos weren't prepared to his taste.A producer's job is to keep the...
I want to spend another day reflecting upon Isaiah 34.
Remember the film Chariots of Fire? Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian, refused to run the 100-meter race on a Sunday morning. But two days later, in the 400, he won the gold...
Oberlin College once gave an honorary doctorate to Theodore Steinway—president of the company that crafted the world’s most prestigious pianos.The tribute said...
We live in a spectator age. I don't play basketball. I watch the San Antonio Spurs play basketball. But Church isn’t a stadium or a theatre. Jesus doesn't call us to be spectators...
Jacob set up a pillar in order to identify the place where God had spoken to him. This was, in fact, the second time Jacob did this in Bethel (see also Gen. 28:18)...
God's commitment to justice led him to condemn the evil city of Sodom. Yet, in an astonishing display of boldness, Abraham challenged God's standards of justice. He appealed for Sodom on the basis...
Recently, I accepted an invitation to do a newspaper interview that I didn't much want to do.
Virginia O'Hanlon's school friends told her Santa Claus wasn't real. So her father suggested she write a letter to the newspaper. And she did. ...
We want to see God in the miraculous. We want to see God in the spectacular. We want to see God in the inexplicable. I go through life wanting earthquakes and thunder and...
The only way Christ can use us is by breaking us; it is the rule of our nature. Before the house can be built, the tree must be broken, or there is no...
My friend Don heard two men discussing Father Mychal Judge, the New York Fire Department chaplain who died in the World Trade Center collapse. One man said, “Wrong place, wrong time!” Don jumped...
When I was ten years old, I rested all my hopes on receiving a Spalding Super Anzac tennis racket for Christmas. It had a slit down the throat between head and handle, which...
In the early 1970s, real estate developer Trammell Crow was asked to speak at the Harvard Business School. Afterward, a student asked Mr. Crow to identify the most important single element in...
"The Gift of the Magi" is O’Henry’s beautiful story of a poor young couple who had only two things of value: Jim’s pocket watch, from his father; and Della’s long beautiful hair. On...
Some students were asked to list the world’s Seven Wonders. Amid general disagreement—and several votes—they settled on this list: The Egyptian Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, the...
Former First Lady Barbara Bush tells of eating in a restaurant when a woman interrupted her meal. The woman said, "Aren't you somebody? I know that I know you." While Mrs. Bush waited...
