Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at …
Christian Origins #2 - Acts
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled …
Christian Origins #1 - Acts
How many hundreds of millions of Christians are there in the world by now? What is your guess? Well, I looked it up. Christianity of all stripes is the largest religion in the world and …
Whatever Happened to the Bible?
When I was a lot younger, I was associated with a church that was, hands down, the most Bible-reading group of people I have ever known. With all of the faults of that generation and …
About the Bible
What did the first Christians believe about the Bible? It is an interesting question for several reasons, not least because the Bible, as we know it, had yet to exist. The components of what we …
Not Guilty
A long time ago, when I was a very young minister, a series of remarkable things happened to me. I found myself deeply troubled by what I called at the time “wrong thoughts”. It was …
The Tree #2
The apostle John is in vision, and he’s nearing the end of an incredible experience. Step by step, he has seen the sequence of visions that make up what we all the Book of Revelation. …
The Tree #1
There’s an odd thing about the Bible that’s easy to overlook: It begins and it ends with a tree. Everybody knows that in the Garden of Eden there was the Tree of Life. What’s easy …
The Mysteries of God
Why is God so mysterious? Why all the mumbo-jumbo about religion? Why doesn’t God just speak plainly to man and tell us what he wants? I think that is a fair question. So does God. …
About Christmas
What did the first Christians believe and practice about Christmas? I know in a way that is a loaded question, because the word Christmas is found nowhere in the New Testament, nor is any noticeable …
Too Late for Christmas
If you’re planning on celebrating the birth of Christ in the near future…well, I hate to be the one to tell you this but you’re about three months late. Yeah, really. What’s funny about it …
Taking “No” for an Answer
You would think that prayer is one of the truly simple ideas in the Bible. We have needs, we ask, God supplies. Problem is, it doesn’t always work that way. It would be easier—in a …
Disappearing Dreams
What do you do when you wake up some morning and realize that you have run way too far down the wrong road? Life isn’t working. You feel absolutely lost. I used to hear Billy …
An Honest Answer
I had a call recently from a lady who was very complimentary of one of my programs. It seemed what she appreciated most was my honesty with the scriptures. Now, I was flattered by that, …
Who Do We Blame?
I think we need a divorce tax—say, $2000 to be paid by the partner at fault in the divorce. The very idea of a no-fault divorce is absurd. If two people agree that neither is …
Created Equal?
Once upon a time, there was a man sitting quietly by a pool of water. He was a very sick man, and doubted that he had very long to live. While he stared into the …
What Is God Doing? #24
There is a great fascination with the lost tribes of Israel. Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, taught that the American Indians were among the lost tribes, and there was a television special not long …
What Is God Doing? #23
You have probably heard someone say that God works in mysterious ways. That’s true enough, and sometimes the mystery doesn’t become clear until the story has completely played out. But that’s just like any good …
Victory or Death
These are times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and …
What Is God Doing? #22
What in the world is God doing? Did he just start all this going and go off and leave it? Or is he sitting in a heavenly recliner watching all this like a great, sweeping …