Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Ten years earlier, Naomi had left her hometown of Bethlehem and crossed the border into Moab. She had been a wife and a mother of two sons. The rest of her life lay ahead of… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. In the Bible’s library of 66 books, Ruth is distinctive. Along with Esther, it’s one of only two books named for a female. No other book reserves the starring roles for two women (Ruth and… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Did you hear about the church that was frustrated with their new pastor? He loved to preach about baptism. In fact, he explored the finer points of baptism the first ten times he stood in… Read more »
Names were serious business in the ancient world. They were thought to reveal something of the character, identity, and even the destiny of those who bore them. That’s rarely the case in modern Western culture. Every few years I publicly reveal what the “W” of my middle name stands for. Back in the 1950’s, if my parents had been able… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Tucked away amongst the voluminous historical narratives of the Old Testament, like a Mom and Pop grocery store on a street that is lined with skyscrapers, there is a surprisingly humble Bible story called the… Read more »
We live in the era of the Zombie Renaissance. Zombies are everywhere, slouching or scrambling their way through feature films, TV series, Halloween bashes, and even a tongue-in-cheek CDC safety guide on how to survive a zombie apocalypse. The classic zombie myth has Haitian roots. But the fear of being taken over by some kind of power or organism that… Read more »
Touring rock stars can make some unusual demands. When Eminem is overseas, he asks that his hosts provide Taco Bell menu items imported from the United States. Kanye West demands a slushy machine in his dressing room – one that generates an ice-cold mashup of Coke, lemonade, Grey Goose, and Hennessy. Jack White requests fresh guacamole whipped up according to… Read more »
Life is full of close calls. I’m reminded of that when my family wades into one of those “Remember when…?” conversations that inevitably dredges up childhood near-misses. There was the day, for example, when I got too close to the neighbor’s burning brush pile while wearing my Davey Crockett-era frontier suit. Unbeknownst to me, the fringes caught on fire. An… Read more »
In 1963, as a young, newly minted sociologist, Rodney Stark was given the chance of a lifetime. On behalf of the Survey Research Center of the University of California-Berkeley, he was granted the privilege of designing the first-ever major survey of religion in America. Stark intended to ask randomly selected church members, among other things, if they had ever had… Read more »
“Frankly, this song scares me to death.” That’s what the late folk rocker Harry Chapin said about Cat’s in the Cradle (1974), his only song that ever went to No. 1 on the charts. The song tells a multi-generational story of a father who is too busy to spend time with his son, only to discover later in life that… Read more »