From the first days of the Church there have been competing beliefs about the second coming and end times. Yes, there were and are false teachers but most of the confusion has resulted from jumping to conclusions about certain signs, overly excited imaginations or just different readings of Scripture. Why else would we have pre/post/a millennial interpretations? Why else would we have an end times industry? From the outset there have been two major perspectives on the role of the Church in the world as we await the second coming of Christ. There is the conquering Church– the Church triumphant. There are those pursuing dominion in the world and, in…

Carol and I were in Baltimore last week, and our visits included a middle school in one of the worst neighborhoods of the city. The principal told us their students consistently dropped out long before graduation, and the teen pregnancy rate was triple the state average.  On the wall of his office, he had a chart with three columns:  Coping, Well-Being and Agency. Each column listed the school’s initiatives to improve in each area. While all three are important, it is the sense of agency – the belief that there is something you can do about your circumstances – that drives so much of everything else. You are not a…

Looking back now, it is difficult to believe that in early 1972 I was singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in a choir for one of Arthur Blessitt’s crusades in Boston. You might remember Arthur as the man who carried the wooden cross around the world on foot. He logged 38,000 miles and visited 315 nations. A new Christian and like so many others, I had been swept up in the adventure of it. In June of that same year, I was part of the 100,000 high school and college students swarming in Dallas, Texas at the Cotton Bowl for Explo‘72. Sponsored by Campus Crusade, we had come from around the…

The boy had been sent to the office of the principal by a teacher at her wits’ end. “He’s incorrigible,” she murmured and left him at the door. The principal took the heavy wooden paddle from his desk and with me as the required witness gave the boy the first of three strokes. I knew it stung. I had been paddled myself at the same age and for the same reason. But it was the boy’s response that unsettled me. It was not a smirk but an indifferent smile after each swat as if he were neither frightened or remorseful. He only grinned and when the punishment was finished stood…

My travel agent informed me this week that for someone my age to rent a car in Ireland I must now provide proof that I am not only fully insured but a statement from our doctor that I am healthy enough to drive. I believe I have graduated to a different status in life. I am now elderly. Elderly is better than simply old. Elderly is something else entirely. It means I have the opportunity now of being an elder and that is so different from merely being old. An elder can choose to be wise and of use in unique ways. I may resist being old but I can…

Discoveries made through a mistake, battles lost by a sudden change of wind, unintentional inflection points in a life through a wrong turn. The history of our world is full of them. In fact, the closer we study major shifts the more likely we are to see they often hinge on seemingly unimportant choices that make the outcome radically different. What if Archduke Ferdinand’s driver had not accidentally turned down the wrong street giving a Serbian nationalist his opportunity? What if the wind had not shifted on the Spanish Armada destroying their fleet? What if a dish of bacteria in the lab of Alexander Fleming had not been contaminated with…

Don Miller’s first book “Blue Like Jazz” may be the most recognized of the several he has written but I have a special fondness for his book “Scary Close.” In it he chronicles his years of failed relationships, isolation and painful drama. Don is honest about his tendencies to manipulate, use and ultimately alienate people out of fear – fear of being honest about himself and with others. He writes that his actions were not altogether intentional but always inevitable: “A weasel doesn’t know he’s a weasel, he just does what works to get food.” But in Don’s life there was a moment when he changed — and that’s his…

The story of Abraham’s calling begins at the end of the line. If you trace the descendants of Adam through Noah and then to Terah, the line of family was about to disappear because Abraham’s wife, the daughter of the first-born of the last of Adam’s line, was barren. While it had survived against great odds – it was about to be extinguished. For 1,000 years between Noah’s covenant and Abraham there had been no word from the Lord. “This is the sign of my covenant” – and then silence for a millennium. I’ve wondered how they were able to live on so little from God when we expect to…

It was Easter morning in Kenya and we were in a bus making our way from Kisumu to Kijabe. All along the road we saw groups of people walking and running to church. Some were singing as they went while others were almost skipping in anticipation of the service. There were congregations meeting in churches while others were simply clustered in open fields around a large cross planted in the ground as a sign of the place to worship. Every Sunday – every day – is colorful in Africa but that day was especially so. Robes, headdresses, suits and ties were brilliant everywhere and on everyone. Had we not been so…

Years ago I taught Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment to high school seniors. The central theme of the book is the alienation of the main character, Raskolnikov, from society. The isolated young man sees himself as superior to all other people and cannot relate to anyone. A loner, he considers other people only as tools to be used. Seeing himself as a Superman, a person who is extraordinary and above the moral rules that govern the rest of humanity, he is driven to an act that will clearly distinguish him from those who are bound by the law and will prove his superiority: the gruesome murder of an old woman. He describes the…