Tomorrow is election day. Those of us who vote do so in the hopes that if we get the right people in the right position so they can change the world for the better. However, in recent years, it has been easy to get  jaded as it seems that no matter who gets into office, no problems are fixed and things just keep getting worse.  I am not saying we should stay out of politics or throw up our hands in despair. But maybe we are losing hope because our hope was misplaced to begin with. As Christia... Read Full Story

There are lots of people losing their jobs these days, and millions more worried about losing their job. About two years ago, I lost a job, and went without work for about three months.  During this time, I experienced great stress, fear, shame, and anger. I would not wish such a thing on anybody. Thankfully, I now have a good job. In Luke 1:18-25, Zacharias loses his job. As a priest, he needed to be able to speak, so when he was struck speechless, it was like getting fired. Unless he got hi... Read Full Story

Do you think that when angels are sent by God with a message, they understand the message they deliver? The reason I ask is that for three weeks now, as I have tried to work on a post for this blog, I have been struggling to make sense of what an angel says in Luke 1:17. Though I wrote an explanation of Luke 1:17 in my commentary, I don’t fully understand it. At first, the verse seems rather straight forward. But if you check the average commentary, and you will see that nobody really knows w... Read Full Story

This Post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 1:8-10. It is difficult to know why they all showed up. One of them, Zack, was there because it was his duty. But more than that, it was also his privilege. Nevertheless, he most likely carried it out with great fear and trembling. After all, some had died doing what he was about to do.   A few probably came out of genuine desires and pure motives. But others came only because it was what they had always done. It was tradition. On this day, ... Read Full Story

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 1:5-7. Do you ever feel that God has passed you by? Forgotten about you? Failed in His promises? Given you great plans and then left you out to dry? Do you ever feel like your prayers never get past the roof? That most of the time when you pray, if answers come at all, they are exactly the opposite of what you prayed? It may surprise you to learn that this is NORMAL. It seems most preachers and Christians are saying the exact opposite. We o... Read Full Story

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 1:5-7. Obama gave his health care speech tonight. So here’s a question: Do you think that following Jesus should influence one’s viewpoint on the health care debate? Why or why not? Interestingly, about 2000 years ago, a high-ranking public official named Theophilus was asking similar questions about the political plans of Caesar. Luke writes to Theophilus about Jesus to help answer these questions. Foremost in the mind of Theop... Read Full Story

This post is based on the Grace New Testament Commentary for Luke 1:1-4. Science Cannot Prove History In the movie Religulous (which I recently reviewed), Bill Maher challenged Francis Collins (the leading geneticist of the Human Genome Project) to scientifically prove that Jesus really lived, died, and rose again. This is not really an area of expertise for Francis, but he did a decent job of stating something about how the Four Gospels are historically reliable. Maher scoffed at this of cou... Read Full Story

This is my 300th Post! And with it, I have some changes to announce. Recently, I haven’t been posting much. I used to post once a day, but now I’m lucky to post once a month. Part of this is because of some things going on in my life right now, but most of it is that I’m dissatisfied with what I write. I have 70 drafts sitting in my queue, just waiting for me to hit the “publish” button, but I just can’t do it. In pondering why I have trouble publishing wha... Read Full Story

I watched Bill Maher’s documentary Religulous over the weekend. I don’t recommend it…but not for the reasons you might guess. First, a summary. The documentary is entertaining, and he makes several points that will cause you to think, but overall, the documentary has one goal: to make fun of everything religious. The documentary attacks several different religions. Along with Christianity, he also makes fun of Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Scientologists, and Mormons.  Oh, and d... Read Full Story

I am certain this post will get me some worried comments about my further slide into heresy. So let me say it clearly: “I do believe God exists! I believe there is a God, as revealed to us through nature, our conscience, Jesus, and Scripture.” Now, on with my post. I was recently having a discussion with a friend of mine who doesn’t believe God exists. He gave me some interesting books to read, which, in the format of a novel, present “god” and “satan”... Read Full Story