We do our best to illumine this time of year with both artificial and spiritual means. Thankfully, God provides the latter.
The deeper truth behind end-times speculation: Be ready!
The Gospel reading for the first Sunday of Advent (Matt. 24:36-44) is one I remember from the days I clutched a Scofield Reference Bible. Along with Scofield’s infallible notes I carried around a copy of Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great…
Looking for what is good in a challenging world
Who we choose to be informs how we will live and move and have our being in this world. After all, we are people commanded to be known by the way we love one another. If that is our starting point in all things, we will see the good and hope and promise in the challenges before us.
Embracing the hopelessness of Holy Saturday
Why are we in such a rush to get to Easter Sunday? In our efforts to make Easter celebrations the most extravagant Sunday of the year, when church attendance is expected to be beyond the norm, we forget — if not…
Confronting the hard words — head on
Here are 10 words/phrases that I would prefer not to experience personally. Oncologist Hospice Bankruptcy Betrayal Depression Suicide Divorce Termination Conflict Jail Unfortunately, over the past 14 days, 10 different people that I care about have become personally acquainted with…
Now thank we all our God
By Scott Dickison It was around the year 1636, in the town of Eilenburg, in present day Germany, during what is now known as the Thirty Years’ War — the longest and what many believe is still the most destructive…
We can make it on the broken pieces
By LeDayne McLeese Polaski It was hot in the church that steamy New Orleans night, but the members of the congregation were far more focused on the fact that this was their first revival since Hurricane Katrina — a significant…
Next-Year People
By Scott Dickison I endured a bittersweet moment recently as I walked with my 2-year-old son through a critical rite of passage. We are, as Dickisons, devout (I use this term reverently and deliberately) fans of the Chicago Cubs. This…
Moving into the future confidently
In his address to the U.S. Congress several weeks ago, Pope Francis noted that young people do not have a positive outlook for the future. “We live in a culture,” he said, “which pressures young people not to start a…