It’s what you do next that matters.
“I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).
The “slap heard ‘round the world” has come to define this year’s Oscars, which aired March 27. Comedian Chris Rock was presenting the award for best documentary and preceded it with a monologue that included a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss, which is due to her alopecia. At first her husband, actor Will Smith, seemed to laugh at the jab. But then he abruptly strolled on stage and smacked Rock across the face.…
2022 is here! Are you struggling with big decisions? Small decisions? God’s will for your life? If so, don’t ask President Joe Biden what to do. Because he has no idea. On December 22, President Biden was interviewed by ABC anchor David Muir, who asked Biden if he intended to seek reelection. Biden promised in 2020 that he would serve eight years if he was elected, so it was a fair question. Biden responded, “Yes,…
Even a web site like “Mercury: Your Daily Emerald Blog,” which is a hodgepodge of New Age, self-centered tripe, can get it right now and then. Or, at least, come close. A 2016 blog on the site offered “7 Lessons from Famous People About Forgiving Others.” The “famous people” ranged from Jennifer Aniston to Joel Osteen to Oprah Winfree to Nelson Mandela. And the reasons the celebrities talked about forgiveness varied as much as the…
This week, gather with family. Wrap yourself in Thanksgiving warmth. Pause to reflect, watch football, and eat. And try to be grateful. Not just acknowledge Thanksgiving Day, but actually try to be grateful. Because, you may have noticed, it seems like we are not really very grateful these days. There might be a reason for that. In the last of his letters preserved in the Bible, Paul described to his young friend Timothy characteristics of…
Prior to the pandemic, online education was already thriving. And industries that require mostly computer work were seeing the benefits of letting people labor from home. But the pandemic pushed the workforce to remote platforms and accelerated the progress in both education and industry toward remote work. And along with it, something else escalated. Cheating. The increase of online and remote work has resulted in an equally astounding escalation in unethical behavior. People who work…
On July 12, Amy Grant appeared on Apple Music’s Proud Radio with host Hunter Kelly. She participated as part of a conversation about the LGBTQ community’s place in Country music. She was also there, in part, to promote the 30th anniversary of the release of one of the most significant albums in Contemporary Christian Music history, her Heart in Motion. Grant’s name and her rise to popularity in the 1970s is synonymous with CCM. And…
Kim and I found the address, but we checked our notes twice. Cars lined the street and filled the driveway. Did we have the right house? Hal Ostrander and his wife, Carla, had invited us for a quiet dinner. At least, we thought it would be quiet. The occasion was to acknowledge a milestone in my academic career. But it turned out, they wanted not simply to acknowledge this milestone. They intended to celebrate it.…
In 1995 I participated as a teacher in a pastors’ conference hosted by Ukrainian Baptists in Kiev. My two weeks there was my first experience interacting and teaching through a translator. Helen was one of our most dedicated translators. She was a young lady, twenty-something at the time, who had grown up at the conclusion of the Soviet occupation of her homeland. She was smart, engaging, and aspired to work in international politics. And she…
Americans are gradually emerging from Covid hibernation, returning to post-Covid routines and patterns of behavior. As we do, we are coming to terms with how much the crisis has changed us. And it’s not all good. A recent study by LifeWay Research in Nashville found, “As Americans attempt to move past the life-altering effects of 2020, their perspective is shifting on some of the most significant questions facing humanity.” And one of those questions strikes…
I’m not a fan of “reality television” for reasons too lengthy to list here. But sometimes even the exploitation of “reality TV” can remind us of the better things we should aspire to. Consider the case of Rachael Kirkconnell. In mid-March, the 25th season of “The Bachelor” concluded with Matt James selecting Rachael Kirkconnell to be the woman he said he wanted to pursue a relationship with. But the woke mob had already marched through…