In a Berlin park the security guard challenged a scruffy figure slouching on a park bench: “Who are you?” The scruffy man was the philosopher Schopenhauer, and he sadly replied, “I wish to God I knew.” Secular thought doesn’t help us much with understanding our identity. “The universe is noth...
After completing a degree at Christ’s College, Cambridge, preparing to become a minister, Charles Darwin sailed in 1831 as a passenger aboard the H.M.S. Beagle, setting off on a path that was destined to impact the world. His five-year voyage took him to the western coast of South America, where...
When they think about Christians, many people think about a lot of stifling rules. They can't party. They can't sleep around. They can't swear or get drunk. They can't go to strip clubs or tell little white lies. To some outside observers, Christians seem tied up in a whole lot of rules that just...
Preaching, musical performances part of nightly devotionals in South Africa
During one of the worst times in history, one of the best examples of Christian behavior emerged. In 1940 when German Nazis invaded Holland, John Henry Weidner—a Dutch citizen in his late 20s—happened to be in Paris. Unable to reach England with the purpose of joining the Allied armies, he remai...
A matter of ownership. Have you ever noticed how emphatically the Good Shepherd claims ownership of the sheep in the narrative of John 10? He “calls his own” (v.3); “he brings out his own” (v.4); “I know my sheep.. .am known by my own” (v. 14); “I lay down my life for my sheep” (v. 15); and “ot...