Freedom is a terrible burden to bear, and it is a sad fact of life that men are all too willing to lay down that burden in the name of security or some other combination of social goods that are promised by political leaders. We need to think about this, because the result of laying down the burden of freedom is the laying down of freedom itself. One of the times of the greatest freedom a people could ever have enjoyed was the period of time described in the Bible in the Book of Judges. It was a...
Aug 21, 2025•28 min
If you saw the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, you will have been introduced to the idea that the Ark of God is a source of great power. Power that could be used, theoretically, as a weapon of war. Anyone remotely familiar with the Bible should know that while the Ark had great symbolic power, and was an object of great holiness, whatever power that was there was not mindless. It was the power of God, and God was highly unlikely to use that power in the projects and wars of the murdering band of...
Aug 20, 2025•28 min
There aren’t very many things you can do that are worse than making people dread the worship of God. I know, you can kill people, you can maim them, you can cut off their heads. All these things and a lot more have been done to Christians in history. But when you begin to undermine the joy of worship, when you take away the comfort that people feel in coming to appear before God and walking through the prescribed ceremonies, you take the first steps in destroying the relationship with God. And t...
Aug 19, 2025•28 min
It has been said repeatedly that those who cannot learn the lesson of history are condemned to repeat it. I can only conclude that not many people believe that statement, because so few have any interest whatsoever in history. Eyes glaze over when it is mentioned. You may even have started to reach for the button on your radio when I mentioned it. But if you are still listening, consider this: It is entirely the fault of your teachers that you never acquired a taste for history. I will confess t...
Aug 18, 2025•28 min
The earth was not made to last forever. All of us know that our sun will burn out one of these days and, if you look a little further into it, you’ll know that what happens when the sun burns out is that it gets a whole lot bigger. In fact, the size of the sun will actually reach beyond earth’s orbit. But the earth is getting warmer now because the sun is getting hotter. I didn’t really know that. I thought the sun was in a state of equilibrium, but apparently not. Recently I happened to be watc...
Aug 15, 2025•28 min
Aug 13, 2025•52 min
Aug 11, 2025•52 min
There is something that is puzzling me about our society. Maybe you have the answer. When the time comes to execute a murderer, and all the television crews are out filming the demonstrators, interviewing talking heads for and against the death penalty, why is it that they hardly ever tell us in any detail what the murderer did ? And, during election years, why is the execution of a criminal so much more important in a state where the governor is running for president? Why is the governor of a s...
Aug 08, 2025•28 min
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 ago that tracked down people in Asia and Africa who believed they were remnants of these forgotten bloodlines. But there is, in the Bible, a prophecy about all the tribes of Israel at the end time. It is found in Genesis 49: And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, t...
Aug 07, 2025•28 min
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 Agatha Christie mystery. Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple always got everyone together to explain the mystery and expose the murderer. But that little meeting at the end of the story is a very uncomfortable affair for the guilty. So it must have been for the brothers of Joseph. Joseph’s brot...
Aug 06, 2025•28 min
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 soap opera? Or is it possible that God has a plan and that he is implementing that plan? There is reason to believe that most of the time, in most of the world, God just lets things run. But there are individuals and circumstances that he seems to steer from time to time. He knows people’s hearts and needs merely to tweak a few...
Aug 05, 2025•28 min
What in the world is God doing? Where is he going with all this? So often the Bible reads like children’s stories or a prime-time soap opera. Is it all written down just for our titillation, or is there a point to it? One of the odd things in the Bible is the way God takes a special interest in some individuals and seems to shepherd them through the dangers and tribulations of life. In Genesis, there is a thread running within a certain family where God seems to move forward with a purpose in mi...
Aug 04, 2025•28 min
The Bible says the first man was made out of dirt. Scientists says life might have originated out of green slime. That's close enough to agreement for the moment. The point being that somewhere between dirt or green slime, and the man we see standing before us, something had to be done. Not just something. A lot of stuff had to be done, and when you really look at it the implications are awesome. For example, I have to see my eye doctor three times a year, and I am always left waiting in his exa...
Aug 01, 2025•28 min
If you ever needed an outline for a soap opera, you could find it in the Book of Genesis. Maybe you need a movie with a great sweep of characters and action. Genesis has everything. There are great dynasties, wealthy and powerful men, murder, sex, and intrigue. In fact, everything you could hope to find in a modern, prime-time drama is right there. Some fools look at it and shudder thinking, Is this what the God of the Old Testament was like. Of course not—this is what people are like. For his o...
Jul 31, 2025•28 min
I think I can guarantee that most perceptions of the Patriarchs of the Bible are all wrong. I don’t know what you visualize when you think of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but I know what is portrayed in most Christian art. They are solitary figures, robed shepherds, and tent-dwellers. Yet, in fact, they represent one of the most remarkable dynasties in the ancient world. Abraham and Isaac were powers in the region, respected in all quarters—and feared in some. They had so many people in their emplo...
Jul 30, 2025•28 min
When you were young and in love, what would you have paid for your spouse? What do I mean by that? Well, do you really expect a good wife to come free ? Of course you do. One of the curses of the modern world is that we think love is free. A marriage may cost the father of the bride a few thousand dollars, but the bridegroom doesn’t have to bring any great wealth to the table. In ancient times, it didn’t work that way. To a father, a daughter was an asset. But even more, he wanted to be sure tha...
Jul 29, 2025•28 min
I think most people are puzzled by the intractable and irrational nature of the Middle East conflict. They want to know why the struggling nations in the Middle East can’t just get along. You would think, after so many generations of conflict, they would eventually get tired of it all and make peace. The problem is though, that the conflicts in the Middle East are irrational. And they aren’t going to yield to rational solutions. These conflicts are so old that the people who hate one another hav...
Jul 28, 2025•28 min
Why do they send mothers to jail for killing newborn babies? It happens all the time: babies are left in toilets, thrown into dumpsters, or otherwise disposed of; and if they can prove who the mother was, she is prosecuted for infanticide. Now why do we do this? And what right does society have telling parents how to treat their kids? Don't the kids belong to the parents? Can't the parents do as they please with their own children? Well, no, of course not. Children are persons under the law, and...
Jul 25, 2025•28 min
If you have ever been to Jerusalem there is a natural question that comes to mind. Why should anyone care very much about this particular piece of real estate? Jerusalem is not a port. It is not on a river. It is not on a trade route. It doesn’t sit on top of oil reserves or a gold mine. The hills and fields are rocky and a lot of work has to be done to even grow crops. Of all the places in the world I have visited, Jerusalem is not on my list of the places I would care to live. So why have peop...
Jul 24, 2025•28 min
How would you feel about having someone else arrange your marriage? Judging by the way people make decisions nowadays, it might not be a bad idea. Half of the marriages people are arranging for themselves are headed for divorce. Maybe we should reconsider? Maybe not, but in the ancient world of the Bible, marriage was, in the main, arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom. I suppose the reasoning behind it was that young people were too frivolous to be making such an important decision. Th...
Jul 23, 2025•28 min
In Genesis 22, we have the story of Abraham’s trial—his test. God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham! Here I am, he replied. Then God said, Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you. Now, it would be hard to overstate the crisis that this represented to Abraham. He had waited so long for this boy. He had been willing to have Ishmael for his heir, but God had promised him a son throu...
Jul 22, 2025•28 min
When God told Abraham that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham nearly talked him out of it. He got God to agree that if ten righteous men were found in the cities, he would not destroy the cities for their sakes. Abraham quit reasoning with God after getting to him to agree to ten. I think Abraham felt there where ten righteous men there. But he was wrong. Ten were not found, only one , and Sodom and Gomorrah were left as smoking ruins (if there were any ruins left to smoke). Why...
Jul 21, 2025•28 min
Not long ago, a man stood having pleaded guilty to raping an eight-year-old ten times. The judge had the unpleasant duty of sentencing this man. She wanted to say something appropriate when she sentenced him, so she came up with the words of Jesus: But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and they were drowned in the depth of the sea. She proceeded to sentence the man to 51 years in prison saying, I...
Jul 18, 2025•28 min
There is such a thing as believing God and still having your doubts. The fact that a person doubts on a given point, though, doesn’t mean they don’t trust God. People who read the Bible and try to get it right should know this: God is not offended by our doubts. In fact, it is our willingness to put our trust in him in spite of our doubts that constitutes faith. If there were no doubts, there could be no faith. Faith, in that sense, is trusting God instead of trusting our doubts. And it has to d...
Jul 17, 2025•28 min
There is nothing new about surrogate motherhood, you know. In fact, there is an example of it in the Bible—and it carried with it then the same pitfalls and potential for discord as it does today. The infertile woman was Sarah, and her husband was Abraham. God had promised them a son. But, after some time, Sarah seemed to now be beyond childbearing age and they had not yet received their promised son. Maybe, they thought, they weren’t doing their part and were going to have to take matters into ...
Jul 16, 2025•28 min
Everyone loves a mystery, so I have a good one for you. There is this shadowy Old Testament character who appears only once in the historical accounts of the Bible. His name is Melchizedek, and there are some truly strange things about him. He is mentioned after the patriarch Abraham and his men defeated a coalition of kings and recovered the captives and booty that had been taken from the city of Sodom (including his nephew, Lot). After this battle, we find Abraham giving Melchizedek a tenth of...
Jul 15, 2025•28 min
What in the world is God doing? And what does religion have to do with it? I know it may sound a little strange to ask, but asking strange questions is sometimes what teachers do. Man is very prolific in religion-building. But, very often, his religions have very little to do with what God is doing. So, we’ve been looking around in the Book of Genesis for some clues—as I imagine he runs a little deeper than we may first expect. First, a question: who is this we’re dealing with? His name is not G...
Jul 14, 2025•28 min
I have a sense that a lot of us are frightened these days. It isn’t the hair-raising fear that gives us an adrenaline rush. It is the slow dread that creeps up on us in the night and denies sleep. And it really doesn’t help to say, Don’t worry, everything will be all right. I’m not so sure that FDR’s We have nothing to fear except fear itself, would be any help either. It might help a little if the politicians and the news media would stop trying to scare everyone to death. What the politicians ...
Jul 11, 2025•28 min
It must have been terrifying being on Noah’s ark for all those days—closed up inside, unable to see the sky, hearing a pouring torrent beat the roof, and feeling the whole shop rock to and fro with the waves. But, you know, the most terrifying part of this experience must have been knowing that, outside the ark, everyone and everything, was dying . The people who had been cooped up in that boat emerged totally changed. It’s no wonder that the tradition of the flood is found in nearly every tribe...
Jul 10, 2025•28 min
Sometimes the Bible can be very disturbing. One reason is because the Bible presents ideas that upset us when they are not what we want to hear. Most of us have a personal theology and our own unique way of looking at God. We then tend to see everything we read in that light. But the problem is that sometimes the Bible is so plain we cannot escape what it is saying. We will run into some things that are very troubling—things that don’t fit in with our personal theology. But when we encounter som...
Jul 09, 2025•28 min
