Jesus never doubts the provision of God. He never worries that there won't be enough. He always pushes us to trust God completely. One of the ways he does that is by teaching us who God is and how God acts. In Matthew 6:24-34 — which is an excerpt from Jesus's longest recorded sermon, the Sermon on the Mount — Jesus goes to great

In late 2008, terrorists attacked India's most populous city, Mumbai, unleashing a cavalcade of murder and mayhem that struck fear in the hearts of the citizenry and resulted in a significant loss of human life. As reports of these attacks began to appear on cable news outlets here in the United States, I was riveted, and also deeply troubled.

I was listening to a news briefing and heard a quote from Ben Affleck: While he ponders his own future as the Dark Knight, the actor does see a timeliness in Justice League's arrival now. “We certainly are in need of heroes in 2017,” Affleck says. “There's a lot of stuff going on in the world, from natural to man-made

Lots of Family Camp guests come up to me in the summer and say something like: “It seems like you are here all the time! Where do you go on vacation??” Well, believe it or not, I go camping! That's right – after Family Camp wrapped up, my family headed off for four days in a state park in Delaware. But it gets better when

For more than a decade, pastor and author David Hansen has been helping me close the gap between what I practice and what I preach. (Perhaps it could go without saying, but we all need someone like David in our lives.) Not too long ago I spent some time reading one of his books — it was a book about prayer. In it, David said something like

Jesus never avoided the people that needed Him the most. His habit of associating with sinners was considered scandalous by those who kept a close eye on that sort of thing (Matthew 9:10-13). But Jesus didn't seem to mind. Love compelled Him to do what He did. He never seemed to have any hesitancy to keep company with those who might sully His

I feel a constant struggle in my life between being a consumer and a contributor. In the last ten years or so, I have come to love reading. I can't get enough of it. I am not quite disciplined in getting enough time to actually get through all the books I want to consume. My Amazon wishlist is mostly books, and I have a very bad habit of buying

In the aftermath of Pentecost, the church was unabashedly generous. Luke, the author of Acts, tells us, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” Some have suggested that an early form of socialism was being practiced in Jerusalem, but

More than a decade ago I sat on the edge of my seat as I listened to an aged pastor tell the remarkable story of his experience leading a church in Washington, D.C. In vivid detail he described each phase of the church's fifty-year journey, remembering like it was yesterday each daring, faith-filled step of this small, yet courageous