Barnabas, the Book of Acts tells us, was called a “son of encouragement.” Many of us have Barnabas moments in life where we can draw from our own experiences to help others, and I had one recently. At one of our speaking engagements in the last year or two, we spent time with a young man who deeply impressed me with giftedness — good solid thinker, articulate, a church leader type, faithful and wise beyond his years, and had a... Read more

Late summer I read Hala Jaber’s gripping memoir of life in Iraq called: The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: A Woman’s Fight to Save Two Orphans . If you can read this without tearing up, well, you can’t. Hala weaves together her own story, her fight with her own infertility, the devastation in Iraq, her critique of what war does to countries and people and children … and how her coverage of Iraq led her to one family and one... Read more

Amazon’s idea — let Black Friday morph into a shopping day on Monday called CyberMonday. Read more

Two new books on the historical Jesus might be worth your careful consideration. The first one provides the spectrum of views, the second one is a historical Jesus book by one scholar.  James Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy have produced a book for students, or for pastors who simply don’t have the time to read the major books and sort through all the scholarship. The book is called: The Historical Jesus: Five Views .  Here’s what you will find: Chapters... Read more

I want to open the comments on this post to those who are unemployed, or who were unemployed and who have recently found employment, to speak into the lives of others who are unemployed.  We’d like to hear your advice, your comfort, your encouragement, your hope, and your wisdom. We want this blog to be a forum of hope, a place where the unemployed can come to hear stories and words of encouragement.  As Christians we celebrate the resurrection on... Read more

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy... Read more

One Sunday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for church, to which he replied, “I’m not going.”  “Why not?” she asked.”I’ll give you two good reasons,” he said. “One, they don’t like me, and two, I don’t like them.”  His mother replied, “I’ll give YOU two good reasons why you SHOULD go to church. One, you’re 54 years old, and two, you’re the pastor!” Read more

Tomorrow Da (once mighty) Bears play Minnesota’s (uberconfident) Vikings, and I’ve made a friendly wager with Tony Jones. If the Vikings win, I send him a Chicago style deep dish uberpizza and if Da Bears win, he sends me a pound of peace coffee. Tony’s been full of grace on this one: he’s given me 10.5 points. So … What are my chances? I’m counting on a Samson-like infusing of strength, late in life, to pull down the house. Read more