These are very trying times. But the ultimate problem is the threat of death. Despite all of life’s difficulties, Jesus has taken the sting out of death. After a bee stung a boy one day, his young brother was frightened as the insect continued hovering around him. But his father told him not to worry – there was only one stinger in that bee, and his older brother had already received it. Jesus is our older brother, and He has taken the sting of death upon Himself. As the Apostle Paul would say, “Oh death, where is thy sting?”   […]

“The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray” (1 Peter 4:7). Peter wrote these words for the persecuted believers in the cities and rural areas who lived in the Roman provinces of Pontus, Galatian, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1:1-2), the area which is the modern-day Turkey. These gentile Christians broke from the immoral lifestyle and idolatry of their communities, and in response, they experienced the dishonor of being physically and verbally abused (4:1, 3-4). The situation of women and slaves was especially precarious since they were expected to follow the […]

“O Lord, How Long Shall I Cry, and You Will Not Hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2). This question, asked by Habakkuk, was born out of a “burden” that consumed him. He faced a moral dilemma: how could a holy God — who had called Israel the “apple of His eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10) — now allow the pagan Babylonians to besiege and ultimately destroy the city of Jerusalem and take away the Jews into captivity? If we are honest, most of us have felt like Habakkuk. We, too, have been burdened by the seeming inactivity of our God. We too have bombarded the […]

Barefoot, hooded and clad in black, dancers from Palm Beach Atlantic University glided across the stage to open the true story of Rabeka, a South Sudanese woman who made vibrantly embroidered bedsheets to sell in her village market. A tragic shadow fell over the rich colors of Rabeka’s work as background music faded and the dancers depicted what happened when soldiers ravaged the village. “The women gathered as much as they could carry in a sheet and ran for their lives,” explained a narrator. “Rabeka was running with her bedsheet and her children when a soldier stopped her, grabbed one […]

Darkness before the sun My mother was born in 1924, which makes her 98. The year she took her first breath coincided with the formation of the Mercedes-Benz Corporation, the naming of J. Edgar Hoover to head the FBI, the fascists winning the election in Italy by 2/3 majority and the end of construction of the Wrigley Building. As one of 11 children, she has witnessed the passing of eight of her siblings; only two “young” sisters are living, one 86, the other 92. She has attended dozens of funeral and memorial services during the past 30 or so years […]