Last Sunday evening, mother-and-daughter singing duo Naomi and Wynonna Judd were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wynonna accepted the honor all by herself. Her 76-year-old mom had taken her own life the day before. The Judds were lavishly successful, scoring 14 number one hits on the country music charts between 1983 and 1991. After a 20-year hiatus, they were… Read more »
It’s your ultimate game show fantasy. You’re the last contestant standing with Monty Hall on the original Let’s Make a Deal. Aside from the fact you’re dressed in an outfit that will embarrass your grandchildren when they watch the reruns years later, you now have a choice that could potentially yield significant rewards: Do you want what’s behind Door #1, Door #2,… Read more »
One of the great things about owning a barn in the Midwest is that every spring and summer it becomes a home for barn swallows. These strikingly beautiful visitors are endowed with navy blue backs, cream-colored undersides, a dab of orange under the beak, and distinctive forked tails. They build their nests high up in the rafters of buildings and barns,… Read more »
During World War II, America’s Office of Strategic Services – the precursor to the CIA – was assigned the task of devising subversive ways to help defeat Japan. Some of the OSS’s initiatives could best be described as non-traditional. More than two million dollars were invested in the development of the “bat bomb.” Project managers hoped to drop thousands of Mexican… Read more »
During the 1930s, the Soviet Union took aggressive steps to diminish the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. As the dictator of a militantly atheistic regime, Josef Stalin ordered the execution of church leaders or their exile to Siberia. Priests were considered enemies of the state. Church buildings were closed, then reopened as museums or propaganda centers for Marxism. Crosses disappeared. Religious… Read more »
“I’m tired of running this damn church.” If you’re a pastor who desperately wants to get the attention of your elders, try using a turn of phrase they aren’t expecting. That’s what Eugene Peterson did about 10 years into his efforts to launch a new congregation in suburban Baltimore. They had survived their first few difficult years. Pastor and people had worked… Read more »
Lunch hour at school. High noon. For many kids it’s the loneliest hour of the day. Lunch hour is when you find out if you have friends. And everybody else finds out if you have friends, too. In the cruel subculture of most schools, there are always a number of kids who are stranded on the outside looking in. But every now… Read more »
One hundred years ago, people were just coming to grips with a strange idea: Everything is made of atoms. The notion had been around for a very long time. But all of a sudden a truckload of evidence emerged that it was really true. Even though common sense would seem to shout otherwise, reality is composed of exceedingly tiny particles. … Read more »
On Easter Sunday 2001, I made a dramatic announcement to the congregation I was serving as pastor. Two years earlier we had joined with other churches in supporting the Billy Graham Crusade in Indianapolis. I announced that I had received a phone call the prior evening from a member of the Graham Association, asking if it would be all right if… Read more »
For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, we’re looking at the life of Peter. Because he’s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus. Scott Sauls, a pastor in Nashville, recalls what happened… Read more »
