I’d like to share with you three new ways you can partner with me in reaching this generation for Christ through cyberspace, television and the radio.   If you are one of the hundreds of people who read my blog each week, or one of the thousands of people who subscribe to the sermon podcasts, you may be willing to consider one of the following three levels of support for this ministry as the Sprit leads and you are able:

It’s like the Grinch who stole Christmas.  That was the observation of Sheriff Kent Harris in explaining the actions of a thief who struck Danny Tipton’s Christmas tree farm in eastern Tennessee a few days ago.  Tipton specializes in taller Fraser firs preferred by businesses and churches and homes with higher ceilings, Christmas trees usually ten to twelve feet tall.  Tipton sells his firs for $100 each.  But a thief or band of thieves raided the Tipton farm sometime between Thanksgiving and last week and lopped off the top six feet of two dozen of his prize Fraser firs, 

If only that three-way handshake meant the answer to the Christmas song! How many times has the world witnessed the leaders of Israel, the Palestinian people and the United States clasp hands in a renewed pledge to seek peace in the Holy Land. Three nations, three religions, one prayer. Still unanswered.

I'm reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s award-winning new book, Mayflower, an “electrifying new history” of America’s “most sacred national myth”—the voyage of the Mayflower and the settlement of the Plymouth Colony. Blending the dispassion of an historian with the dramatic flair of a story-teller, this account is the most detailed and gripping Pilgrim chronicle I have read.

“‘People I associate with are looking at me like, are you guys crazy?’”  That was school committee chairman John Coyne’s comment when a measure he opposed was approved by a 7-2 vote of the Portland (Maine) School Committee (South Bend Tribune 10-19-07).  Why did that vote make the national headlines a few weeks ago?  Because it was a decision to allow children as young as eleven years of age to obtain birth control pills at a middle-school health center.   News indeed!

Was this some sort of Halloween joke?  The headline caught my eye:  “Hunter shot by his dog.”  You’ve got to be kidding!  No, the Des Moines, Iowa, story turns out to be very true, painfully true.  Jim Harris, 39, was out hunting last weekend on the opening day of pheasant season.  As he and his canine buddy were moving through the brush, Harris stopped, laid down his shot gun, and you can guess the rest.  “Man’s best friend” accidentally stepped on the shotgun, tripped the trigger, and at close range pumped 100-120 pellets into Harris’ calf.  The good news is that Jim is recovering from su

Two very different headlines this week ought to give us all pause.  Mother Nature’s awful conflagration in southern California has been front and center all week long for the American news media.  And why not?  The greatest evacuations in California’s history were the result of what may yet be the most devastating fires in that state’s history.  Fortunately the loss of human life was limited.  But the economic and ecological losses to that region of the state and nation are monumental and mounting.

One out of every eight people on earth lives on the continent of Africa.  But the mystique of that ancient continent—with its stunning natural beauty and its enchanting native lore—has been bowed by the twin epidemics of poverty and HIV/AIDS.  The World Bank identifies Africa as the greatest aid challenge on earth, reporting that more than 314 million Africans—nearly twice as many as in 1981—live on less than $1 a day.

Did you hear about the Pittsburgh man last week who went in to a Giant Eagle supermarket and paid for a head of lettuce with a $1 million bill?  That’s right—one million dollars.   And he asked for change!  The wide-eyed but suspicious clerk notified the manager, who promptly confiscated the bill.  Whereupon the customer promptly flew into a tirade, smashing the electronic funds-transfer machine beside the cashier and grabbing the scanner gun.  Police arrested the man.  When later asked by a reporter for comment, a police spokeswoman replied, “It’s a bit different.” It certainly is!  The U.

If you’re a firstborn, did you know there was a price on your head?  This headline is a tad old (about 3,500 years or so), but nevertheless it’s true.  On that dark and fateful night that the slave kingdom of Israel fled Egypt in the mighty Exodus, God declared that the firstborn of every Israelite family (and flock and herd) belonged to him, “It is Mine” (Exodus 13:2).