A Baby's Cry

Eleven years ago, when U.S. senators were in the midst
of a fierce debate over partial-birth abortion, the proceedings
were abruptly interrupted by a baby's cry.

I was there that day and will never forget that electrifying
moment, a reminder of what we were fighting for: nothing
less than the lives of innocent babies...


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Faith Imitates Art

Even art devoid of intentional Christian imagery
can have spiritually transformative effects.


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The Virginia Tech Massacre

Who among us is not grieving with the families of those
who died at Virginia Tech this week? We mourn with
them and pray for the families of the victims and for
the victims who survived.

Investigators are still seeking answers as to why this
terrible crime was committed. And many of those watching
events unfold are likely asking this very question on a
spiritual level. That is, why did God allow this slaughter
to happen? If He had the power to stop it, why didn't He?

It is a question that has caused many to doubt God's
existence—or His goodness, or His power. It did with
a friend of mine, a journalist named Lee Strobel.

Lee was an atheist when he decided to examine the
historical evidence regarding the existence of God.
His journey led to a vibrant faith in Christ. But Lee
still struggled with the questions that seemed to have
no logical answer—such as why a loving God would
allow someone to murder thirty-two people at a
Virginia university.


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Think On These Things

You may be good at controlling your finances, your career,
maybe even other people, but chances are you struggle
with controlling your own thought life. We might have
expected our thoughts to be the easiest of all things
to control, but there are times when taming the national
debt seems easier than steering one's own mind to where
it needs to be. The Bible sets a very high standard by
recommending that we "take every thought captive"
to make it obedient to Christ. Every thought.


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The Most Surprised People In Hell

When you have a commercial flight to catch at a major airport,
it's important to pay attention. There are so many flights, so many
gates, so many people, and there's only one plane you want to board;
the one that's going to your destination. I guess folks must have made
mistakes over the years. That must be the reason the boarding agent
or flight attendant gets on the plane and often says something like this:
"This is a destination check. You're on Flight 88 to Atlanta. If Atlanta
is not your destination today, this would be a good time for you to deplane."
Yeah, I guess. In other words, this buggy isn't going where you want to end up!


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Minding Our Media

Is it possible to "keep your heart with all vigilance"
when it comes to our entertainment choices?


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When A Planet Becomes Your Sun

You are probably a believer in heliocentricity, right?
Now that is not a new denomination. It just means
that the sun is the center of our solar system and
all the planets, including this little tennis ball we
live on, are revolving around the sun. We do sound
a little confused about this sometimes, like when
we say, "Isn't that a beautiful sunset?" Actually,
the sun isn't going anywhere; we're the ones who
are moving. But who wants to go for a romantic
walk to watch a beautiful earthset?

Well, apparently, not everyone's got this orbit thing
straight. The American Scientific Association did
a survey a few years ago and they found that 21
percent of Americans surveyed thought the sun
orbited around the earth, and seven percent said
they didn't know...


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Starting From An Empty Tomb

In the book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Lesslie Newbigin
observes, "It is obvious that the story of the empty tomb cannot
be fitted into our contemporary worldview, or indeed into any
worldview except one of which it is the starting point."

You can't have Buddha and an empty tomb; you can't have
Western Imperialism and an empty tomb; you can't have an
innocuous Jesus and an empty tomb. Many have tried to fit
these things together as a puzzle, but the power of the empty
tomb repels anything that competes with it.


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Why Good Friday?

I remember the precise moment I first made the realization.
One of my three daughters was a freshman in high school —
and she was in that give-me-money-and-no-one-gets-hurt
stage of adolescence. You know, the sullen sneer, the flick of
the hair, the disdain that asked if we could PUHLEESE get a
less embarrassing car. One Saturday, she walked down the
stairs, made some pronouncement that should have made
us bolt out of our chairs, salute, and run to fulfill her wishes.
Silly us. We didn't.

More than once I thought my wife and I should be done with
the charade and simply don maid and butler outfits. My wife's
voice is now in my ear reminding me to say that our three girls
may have had their moments but most of the time they were
(and are) wonderful human beings and a lot of fun. What's not
to love? They are so adorable.

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More Than Words

As we might expect, He spends His last hours on
earth with His closest companions. Yet unlike a man
approaching His violent death, He celebrates with
them and tenderly washes His friends' feet--even
the soiled feet of the one who would betray Him.
He speaks of His coming death, yet inconceivably,
His words are filled with life, hope, and comfort.


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Waiting For Spring

I have always found the season of spring a sobering time of year.
The world around me is in full bloom; all traces of winter are fading.
Like the thawing of a frozen Narnia, the promise of rebirth abounds.
And there is something about it that jars me into reflection every time.

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How To Win The Culture War

Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper puts it,
"There is not a square inch in the whole
domain of our human existence over which
Christ . . . does not cry: 'Mine!'" That includes
politics.


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Why Capitalism Needs Christianity

Last week, electronics retailer Circuit City announced that it was
laying off 3400 employees.

What made these particular layoffs noteworthy was not their size
but, instead, Circuit City's stated reasons. They had "nothing to
do with [employees'] skills or whether they were a good worker
or not." Instead, "it was a function of their salary relative to the
market."

In other words, Circuit City was laying them off so it could replace
them with people who make less. Rotten!

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Thy Will Be Done

For obvious reasons, the biblical doctrine of hell has never been
a favorite theme for Christian people, even amongst the most
fervent of puritan preachers. The very thought of an endless
separation from God and his presence, where communication
and community are utterly negated, is an intolerable thought
to the one who loves God. It is a doctrine we do not like and
often do not understand, especially since scripture identifies
our moral barometer as broken.

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The World Speaks

It is a question I ask when I find myself in a defeated
place of miscommunication, when I see two parties
completely misunderstanding one another, or when
I am studying Greek: Is language really worth the
trouble? Of course, even in a defeated place, most
of us would recognize the irony of the question itself;
to voice the trouble of communication is still to utilize
the form of communication. But if it is difficult to
imagine a world without the presence of language,
it is altogether sobering to imagine a world without
its benefits and joys--a conversation with a friend,
the power of the written word, the importance of
banter, reasoning, and debate.


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The “Other” World

There is a place you can go through life without anyone
knowing who you “really” are. You can do things that
you would normally be totally scared to do as they could
damage your reputation, ability to work, or even cause
you physical harm. Social pressures to be a certain way
or act in a particular way are removed. You have the
freedom to create yourself in anyway you want and
present yourself as any kind of person you want to
be. What would you do? How would you act? What
places would you go?

I am not speaking about a psychological experiment
or even the Internet in general but about a place online
called Second Life. This virtual world allows you to create
yourself in any way you can imagine. So how are people
“living” in this virtual world? Some are making life long
friends who may (or may not) meet in the outside world.
Others are living lives that they feel they can not in the
“real” world. Moral and ethical values (and lack there of)
have moved from the “real” world into this virtual reality.
I’ve even read that Second Life recently had a “terrorist”
attack.

But in this “world” where you can have total anonymity,
there are people who are using this cover to seek out
answers to the spiritual questions that they have. That’s
why its so cool to hear about a church who has decided
that this will be one of their mission fields and have
“bought” 16 acres and “built” a church. LifeChurch.tv
has spent quite a few hours developing a safe environment
for people who are seeking answers to their questions
and are searching for them in this world made of ones
and zeros.

People who are in need of knowing God’s love are every -
where including the “virtual” worlds. If we are to reach
the whole world, these places are to be included.

To know more about Second Life, see Wikipedia’s page.

To know more about LifeChurch.tv’s virtual campus on
Second Life, see their blog.

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What Do You Want?

"Wait a minute; what do I really want?" a friend asked himself in my
presence as if speaking the language of epiphany. He found himself
initiating new interests in things, filling his time with pastimes--pining
after that new thing that would change everything--when suddenly he
realized that there was a search behind all of his searching. Why am I
doing all of these things? What am I really looking for? The questions
were something of an awakening.

Someone once told me that all behavior is goal-oriented. It is a simple,
but incredibly rich thought. Indeed, walking through my week with the
idea in mind was as striking as it was enlightening. Looking at my words,
my actions, even my prayers in light of my goal, inquiring as to the
motive, I realized how easy it is to be unaware of my own heart.

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The Empirical Demonstration Of Truth

The first and most important step to understanding the
nature of truth is exemplified in a conversation between
Jesus and Pilate. The conversation began with Pilate asking
Jesus if indeed he was a king. The very surprising answer
of Jesus was, "Are you asking this of your own, or has
someone else set you up for this?"

In effect, Jesus was asking Pilate if this was a genuine question
or purely an academic one. He was not merely checking on
Pilate's sincerity. He was opening up Pilate's heart to himself,
to reveal to Pilate his unwillingness to deal with the implications
of Jesus' answer. Intent, in the pursuit of truth, is prior to content,
or to the availability of it. The love of truth and the willingness
to submit to its demands is the first step.


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Will Muslims Inherit The Earth?

Muslim populations are growing in Europe, Russia, and elsewhere.
High birth rates among Muslims, increased immigration, and new
converts to Islam are all factors that some experts believe could
eventually radically transform the Western World.

According to new research church attendance has been falling all
across Western Europe. In Great Britain, for example, only 6.3
percent of the population attends Christian services on a weekly
basis. The group also projects that around 4,000 churches will
close over the next 15 years. However while church attendance
is on the decline, religious participation among Muslims has
increased dramatically. According to the study, even though
Muslims only comprise around three percent of the British
population, in 35 years there will be twice as many Muslims
in mosques on Friday as there are Christians in churches on
Sunday. This trend can be seen throughout Europe. In France
there are now more than 4,000 mosques, and new mosques
and Muslim prayer centers have been popping up at an
exponential rate. Meanwhile, it has been projected that
Muslims will be the majority population in Germany by 2046.


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The Only Hope For A Dying Heart

David Letterman has been one of the kings of late-night
television for years. His offbeat sense of humor has given
him a prime spot in America's entertainment constellation
for a long time. But one day, suddenly everybody stopped
laughing. David Letterman, whose family has a bad history
when it comes to heart problems apparently, went in for
some seemingly routine cardiac tests. Suddenly, this comic
king was rushed into surgery by his doctor and given a multiple
bypass operation on his heart. The doctor saw major blockage
in David Letterman's heart and he took radical action to save him.


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