Praise should not be divorced from obedience. To praise God and then not obey God is hypocrisy. That was the problem on Palm Sunday. On Sunday the crowd said, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9), but by Friday the same crowd said, “Let him be crucified!” (Matthew 27:22, […]
My wife and I traveled to Israel 18 years ago, and during our return visit last year we noticed that much about the Holy Land remains constant (and confusing)—a mix of the sacred and the strange. In Jerusalem pilgrims rub elbows with pickpockets. Merchants hawk T-shirts outside the entrance to the Wailing Wall. A peaceful […]
I stood next to him in the baptistery and listened to him make his confession of faith. In a matter of days, he would be headed back home to his native Turkey where living out his new faith would be challenging at best. Before we walked into the water, I looked at Emir (not his […]
We want our food fast—and our downloads faster. We want new smart phones and new computers because new means faster. We want to watch our favorite movies and TV shows “on demand.” We want Amazon and FedEx and UPS to deliver our stuff by the next day—or better yet, today. And the boss needs that […]
Giving thanks makes for a busy life. The busiest travel days in the United States occur around the Thanksgiving holiday. Airports are crammed and highways look like parking lots. Even so, Bob Russell says that Thanksgiving is the one holiday that has not suffered extreme commercialization (Bob Russell Ministries Blog, Thanksgiving—My Favorite Holiday, November 19, […]
