In every age, we find ourselves wrestling with the question of how Jesus Christ—the itinerant preacher and revolutionary activist who died challenging the police state of his time, namely, the Roman Empire—would respond to the moral questions of our day.

The announcement of rapper Lil Nas X's limited-edition Satan Sneakers has created a media firestorm, which was the most obvious goal of the campaign. After all, how much money can be made from a run of 666 sneakers, all allegedly featuring a drop of human blood? Yet there are practical takeaways from this publicity stunt.

...You would have thought that the Covid-19 epidemic would have forced us to face up to the reality of death and ask if there is hope beyond it. Yet I am not sure it really has. At least, not yet.

Much was made early in the 21st century of the “Swoon Theory” that Jesus somehow survived being flogged by Roman soldiers, forced to carry a heavy cross half a mile and then getting nailed to that cross and finally stabbed upward into the chest with a spear. Don’t be surprised to hear variants of the idea this Easter weekend as millions of Americans celebrate the Resurrection of their Lord and Savior.

Three major discoveries during the last century contradict the forecasts of scientific atheists, pointing instead in a distinctly theistic direction.

...If you had told me 50 years ago that a half-century hence, there would be a successful social movement, dominating academia, politics and even the business world, holding that the most important thing about a person is his skin color, I wouldn’t have believed it. But that is where we are now.

...But the military is becoming a reflection of the values of the global economic order, not those of the United States.

The Coronavirus lockdowns have led to a 98.5 percent drop in foreign tourist arrivals to Israel during the first two months of 2021, according to recent data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics. 

In the medieval church, priests and bishops often wore precious jewels and lavish vestments embroidered with gold.  In today’s megachurches, pastors are often sporting designer clothes and $5000 sneakers.

...Getting news we don’t expect or like is one of the best spiritual litmus tests I can think of.

....Over the last century, there has been a pronounced shift of Christianity from the Global North to the Global South, with dramatic growth of Christian populations in places like sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. This phenomenon appears to be continuing in the 21st century.

...Mass shootings continue to be, tragically, a regular feature of American life.

...I would never choose to relive the past twelve months. But the Lord has graciously brought opportunities for growth in all of them.