“Who say ye that I am?” is the question with which Jesus confronted the twelve at Caesarea Philippi. Men and women of our day are no less challenged to answer the same question, a question upon which hangs the very meaning of life itself. Who is this whose influence has cast itself powerfully across nineteen centuries?

The only Jesus we may know is the one whose story is written in the New Testament by His close companions and disciples. This is the “historical Jesus.” If we attack their simple, straightforward accounts as unreliable, we have burned the only bridge by which…

    “May your days be merry and bright.”  That’s not a problem for me during this season.  I love everything about it: the decorations, the music, the movies, the cooler weather, the family traditions. I think strangers are even friendlier to one another when they pass on the street, exchanging a chipper “good morning” on a cool, brisk day.  

    But to some, this is not “the most wonderful time of the year.”  The Holiday Blues are real.  They usher in periods of pain, sadness, and even depression.  While I’m enjoying a predictable plot on some Hallmark movie, another might…

    Over the course of my lifetime wartime conflicts have taken place, mostly in the Middle East and Africa. Even now there is again another war going on in the Middle East region.  It is very hard to ignore exactly what is happening and what drives these wars, particularly in the Middle East.  Both sides of the current conflict look to spiritual issues as their driving force, just as we Christians should do in regards to our everyday life.  Mark 9:50 tells us to “be at peace with one another.”  Is that our attitude as we live here in our…