When Nathanael first met Jesus, he wasn’t impressed. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” he asked. (John 1:46) Apparently Jesus’ home town wasn’t known for its wise prophets. Nathanael judged Jesus based on his place of residence, which seems kind of shallow. But we all do it. We quickly judge a person we have …
We are two weeks into the New Year and I thought I’d ask you: how are those New Year’s resolutions going? Maybe that’s an unfair question. While most of us have dreams and desires for the future, we find it hard to stick with goals and resolutions. Researchers at the University of Scranton say that …
Shortly before Christmas I entered an electronics store in France and was searched by a security guard before I could go in. It wasn’t that I looked suspicions or anything; they were doing that to everyone. Safety and security has become a big issue in this part of the world. So much of our lives …
I don’t know what kind of year 2015 was for you. It might have been one of your best years ever. Or, you could be glad it’s on its way out. Certainly this was a challenging year for the world in general. We saw continued threats from terrorism, danger from deadly disease and risk from …
Mary did you know, that your baby boy Is Lord of all creation? Mary did you know, that your baby boy Will one day rule the nations? The song, Mary Did You Know, has become very popular at Christmas time. The song asks Mary, the mother of Jesus, if she understood the importance of the child …
One doesn’t normally think about Sherlock Holmes stories at Christmas time. But Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Holmes obviously loved a great mystery. Set at Christmas time The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle involves the theft a rare blue carbuncle (a type of semi-precious stone). While investigating a scuffle a policeman finds an old …
When people set up their Christmas nativity scene or crèche, they don’t usually have a dragon among the animals. Yet the Bible tells us of a dragon that sought to ruin Christmas and our future. One verse you’ll probably never see on a Christmas card is found in Revelation 12:4, “And the dragon stood before …
This past Sunday was the first week of Advent. Advent is that period of time during which we are to prepare ourselves for Christmas and the coming of Christ. We aren’t preparing for the Christmas that is celebrated in malls and public spaces which focuses on Santa and winter festivities. Rather, we focus on the …
A farmer in the Swiss canton of Aargau made a profitable find recently. In July, he decided to remove a mole hill on his property. In the process, he found a bunch of old coins. In September, a group of volunteer archaeologists did some more searching and found even more loot: 4,166 coins to be …
My favorite city in the world is Paris – always has been and always will be. So it’s been painful to watch the events of the last few days and the attack on that beautiful city. The terrorist attacks didn’t occur in some remote and unknown place but in a location I’m familiar with. The …