Occasionally, the unexpected happens. Recently, I decided to pick up some groceries at my neighborhood supermarket after work. I wondered,  “Would they have fresh avocados?” After my uneventful transaction with the cashier, I smiled and bid them goodnight, and headed for the store exit. But as I neared the door, I did a double take–walking into the store at that moment was the bass player from a world-famous rock band that I had followed as a teenager! The particular band he plays in, I happen to know, is still famous and tours the world regularly. I walked up to […]

  Religious liberty in China is increasing and the Chinese Christian community is growing, according to a leader of China’s state-sanctioned church–but American observers continue to hope for more progress.  Bao Jiayuan, associate general secretary of the China Christian Council, the officially recognized Protestant umbrella group in China, recently visited the United States. He said religious freedom in China is a matter of perspective. During the country’s “cultural revolution” of 1966-1976, many churches and religious institutions were forcibly closed and destroyed. People who practiced their faith openly were persecuted.  Since the end of the revolution, Bao noted the church has […]

We talk about prayer.  Most parents reading this article would say that prayer and communicating with God are extremely important.  Many who are still reading know the verse in Jeremiah that says God knows the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11). Readers may also be familiar with the verse in Psalms that says we are each fearful and uniquely made by God so that we can fulfill His specific plans for us (Psalms 139:14).  That being said, do we as parents actually include the training of prayer in our parenting curriculum?  Do we teach our children to pray?   […]

  I do not know what it is about Islam and liberalism that causes both to turn logic and truth upside down, but we have been witnessing it in different ways recently.  First there was the “humanitarian” flotilla running the Israeli blockade of Gaza and then there was the appalling anti-Semitism of Helen Thomas, formerly of the front row in the White House press room.  Suffice it to say that the so-called Palestinians are not living in a state of “occupation.” They have repeatedly been offered a state of their own, but have refused it for some six decades. They […]