red barn in the andes
All roads may lead to Rome, but the most dangerous road leads to Coroico, a terminal stop on Bolivia’s El Camino de la Muerte—the Road of Death. The road may be deadly, but it’s also spectacular. Clinging to the sides of the verdant, misty Andes Mountains, the sliver of highway slices through panoramic vistas and tiptoes along unforgiving drop-offs that…
what is a Christian?
Under “religious views” on her Facebook profile, my wife lists the simple phrase “Jesus-follower.” She uses that explanatory term to avoid political and cultural connotations associated with the word Christian. In some cultures, people are “born Christian.” But that is a misunderstanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Ironically, a friend of mine in the United Kingdom asked me…
A King on a donkey
It was Sunday—the day we now call Palm Sunday. Without a doubt, this was not Jesus’ first visit to Jerusalem. As a devout Jew, Jesus would have gone to Jerusalem every year for the three great feasts (Luke 2:41-42; John 2:13, 5:1). In the past 3 years, Jesus had also ministered and taught in that great city. But His coming…
Your kingdom come
When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray (Matthew 6:9-13), the Jews were under Roman rule. God had promised them a deliverer—the Messiah. A Jew praying, “May Your kingdom come soon” (v.10) would have had in mind the end of Roman rule, for the Messiah was to come and establish a new kingdom (Luke 19:11), and for David’s descendant to…
put your feet on the rock
During a leaders’ gathering, my friend Chad watched intensely as his daughter, Hannah, climbed up a rock wall. Hannah was making progress, until she began slipping a bit. Chad called out to her, “Put your feet on the rock!” He wanted his daughter to understand that she could find stability on the hard stone that was near her. Isaiah had…
I am who?
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey the week before His crucifixion. On that day, which we now call Palm Sunday, the crowd proclaimed Him to be the Son of David (Matthew 21:9). On the following Tuesday in the temple, Jesus asked the Pharisees a question: “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He?” They replied, “He…
humming earth
Do you hear that low, rumbling noise? (No, I’m not talking about your stomach growling—skipped a meal again, huh?) The phenomenon I’m referring to is called the “Earth’s hum.” That’s the term scientists use for the constant rumble beneath our feet that they can detect by using seismometers.
The deep hum, first discovered in the 1990s, is comprised of countless…
