One of the most common prayers in the life of a Christian is for God to “bless” us. To bless our families, to bless our travel, to bless our food, to bless our sneezes. I bet some of you have “bless this mess” framed and hanging somewhere in your home.God’s people have always asked Him for blessing:
Uninhabitable is too tame a label for some sites.The reactor explosion in 1968 at Chernobyl rendered the area uninhabitable for humans for at least one thousand years – if ever.In the sixth century BC, Israel’s homeland was made uninhabitable.It wasn’t nuclear. It was worse. For their insubordinatio
We reserve a few minutes to discuss news and current trends that you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy.The dreaded and much debated “Mark of the Beast” is a prophecy almost everyone has some familiarity with. The gist of it is that everyone, “small and great,the poor and those who have wealth, th
If you follow Elijah’s life, chapter 19 is more than surprising. He seems to act completely out of character. We’re shocked to see a total collapse into personal defeat after many stunning victories.In 1992, the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide football team finished their season as national cha
From time to time we are taking a look together at the “one another” commands in Bible. There are about 60 of them, given to us so we can know how to properly relate to each other in the church and so we can be built up, others can be built up, and our church can thrive in the love of God.Last time
Most of you could quote the opening nine words of Psalm 23.“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”David goes on from that to skillfully & beautifully exalt the Great Shepherd and His sacrificial care of His flock.What happens when the human leaders appointed to under-shepherd God’sflock are sel
We reserve a few minutes to discuss current trends that you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy.What’s the deal with Iran??Iran in the Bible is referred to as Elam and later Persia:Elam appears in early Old Testament history (Genesis 10:22).Later called Persia, it became a major empire. Cyrus the G
Can you hear fluorescent light bulbs? Those who can usually dislike the buzz and hum above them. Studies show that young students, in particular, have adverse effects when their classrooms are lit by fluorescent tubes.[1] That said, we don’t usually pay much attention to the sounds of light bulbs.Un
A diss track is a song written with a particular target in mind, attacking their character or choices, often mockingly, while promoting the author’s choices and perspective. They’re most often associated with rap and hip hop, but the fact of the matter is you can find examples in pop, country, rock,
Last week, Pastor Gene encouraged us to give some attention to the “one another” passages in the New Testament. Not only would that be a great series for your personal devotions, we should consider them together. The whole point of those verses is to show us how to relate to each other in the church
In 2020, the US was locked down. Travel was banned, parks were chained up, beaches cleared, and schools emptied. So what did Americans do? Gardening. Nationally, we already held the number 3 spot of home-gardening countries, but more than 20 million new gardeners sprung up during the pandemic, bring
“End of Watch” is a solemn phrase used in law enforcement and the military to mark a service member’s death or retirement.The radio dialogue for a law enforcement line-of-duty death follows (more or less) this order:Dispatch alerts all personnel to clear the air and to stand-by for priority traffic.
We reserve a few minutes to discuss current trends that you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy.It is exciting to follow advances in biometrics & AI. They practically scream about the future fulfillment of the Bible’s prophecies of a sentient statue that will enforce, by threat of capital punishmen
Does your family have a “crazy uncle”? If you answered, “No, we don’t have one,” I hate to tell you, but that might mean it’s you.Last November, a site dedicated to the exchange of ideas on college campuses published an article titled, A Thanksgiving Guide For Crazy Uncles. It opened with these line
I’d like to congratulate you on the trip you just made. In the time it took us to listen to Psalm 19, you traveled more than 2,000 miles in our orbit around the sun. That’s as far as here to Cleveland.If that doesn’t impress you, maybe this will: In these last 2 minutes you also travelled over 16,00
New cities have been making headlines. Starbase, Texas is the new city designed for SpaceX’s headquarters, future rocket launches, and dwellings for on-site workers.EPIC City has also been in the news. It is a Muslim-centered planned community near Dallas, large enough for more than 1,000 homes plus
Crowds do strange things. Studies show that more than 1/3 of people will purposefully choose an answer they know to be wrong if other people in the crowd already chose that answer.[1]This is part of a phenomenon called deindividuation. In these cases, individuals in a crowd are so caught up in what
Did you know Hollywood has been making zombie movies for almost 100 years? They were first brought to the silver screen in 1932’s White Zombie.[1] We’re fascinated by stories of how the uninfected will survive in a world that has been overrun by the living dead.Often those stories begin with one ind
Would You Rather is a staple in our house. Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible? Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck? Would you rather always have bad breath or always have BO? These are hard choices kids love to wrestle with at the dinner table.I’ve got a d
I’ll say a word & you say the first word that comes to mind: Egypt.For my generation it would be King Tut. Not the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibit that first arrived in the US late 1976.No, I’m talking about Steve Martin’s song & skit, King Tut, that first debuted on SNL in 1978.Born in Arizona, li
We reserve a few minutes to discuss current trends that you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy.I’ve been talking more about the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in caves near Qumran by the Dead Sea.[1] They include over 900 ancient Jewish texts, dating f
In Pixar’s Onward, brothers Ian and Barley go on a great adventure, crossing rivers and mountains, facing obstacles and battles as they follow a treasure map. They finally make it to where X marks the spot, only to discover they’re back in their own town, right where the adventure started.As the fir
You’ve likely heard of the Upside Down. It is the dark parallel dimension affecting the real-world in the SyFy mega hit, Stranger Things.In Ezekiel 28 God shows us the unseen realm and how it affects the nations of the earth.The chapter divides like this:The Prince of Tyre, historically Ethbaal III,
We reserve a few minutes to discuss current trends that you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy.We don’t hear about it very often, but there are geographical changes happening right now in Israel that are in accordance with unfulfilled prophecies. For example, in the book of Ezekiel, we read,Ezk 47
