When I was a kid, my grandfather would often talk about his hypothetical outline for what he would do if he won millions of dollars. He intended to pay off his own debts and the debts and expenses of all his children . . . Continue reading →

The phrase often goes around that “blood is thicker than water.” One of the ways people use this phrase is to mean that family relationships are more important than relationships made by baptism. In other words, when a family member does something . . . Continue reading →

When I lived in the UK, I had to go on one occasion to the US embassy in London. As I entered the embassy, I was struck by how different the atmosphere of the whole place was. A list of things stood . . . Continue reading →

I lived in New Zealand for a few months during college for a mission trip. We went to help a church start outreach efforts on the nearby university campus. One day, we attended an event where various organizations set up tables to . . . Continue reading →

Casablanca is one of the most famous movies in cinematic history, leaving us with more than its fair share of artifacts ingrained in cultural memory even eighty years later. Humphrey Bogart alone left us with a stack of lines most of us . . . Continue reading →

It is a common bug of humanity that we do not like saying goodbye. We even have stock phrases like, “I’m bad at goodbyes,” or, “Let’s say ‘see you later’ rather than ‘goodbye.’” Even “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” as true . . . Continue reading →

The Trojan Horse is the classic example of a bait and switch. Legend says that, for ten years, the Greeks waged war on the city of Troy. This war went so long because Troy was so well fortified. One morning, the Trojans . . . Continue reading →

If I were speaking to an audience and asked them what the word reed means, from the sound of the word, the majority response would likely be something like “processing written words.” When I explain that the word in my notes is . . . Continue reading →

One of the common questions that Christians face in conversations with unbelievers is, “How could a loving God send anyone to hell?” Although we certainly have to keep a clear focus on God’s love and how his mercy is truly available to . . . Continue reading →

One of the flavors of the day in movies and television seems to be the reboot. You take an old story and retell it in a new way. Or you take an old character and reset the storyline, setting aside the previous . . . Continue reading →

The American posture is dominated by pragmatism—meaning that our biggest question for whether or not we should learn something is, “Does it work?” We need ideas to do something for us to think they are at all worthy of our attention. A . . . Continue reading →

“What’s in a name?” A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So, we might easily assume that what we name something is unimportant. And yet, there seems to be some sort of natural affinity in most ears for the . . . Continue reading →

An old joke pokes at the irony of rejecting God by describing an atheistic scientist talking to God about why we supposedly no longer need him. He says to God, “You know, it used to be that we needed you to help . . . Continue reading →

One question meant to trap Christians in an unsolvable philosophical problem is, “If God is all powerful, can he make a rock so heavy that even he can’t pick it up?” Or as my philosophy professor from college, who was an atheist, . . . Continue reading →

An old allegory tries to describe religion with the story of four blind men feeling an elephant. The blind man feeling the trunk thinks he is touching a long, thick creature. The one touching the elephant’s leg says he is touching a . . . Continue reading →

As we start this series, the whole first line, “I believe in God the Father Almighty,” is too much to tackle in one go. As a way of introduction to the whole idea of studying the Creed, then, this article focuses on . . . Continue reading →

For good or for ill, I have a taste for shows about comic book heroes and science-fiction stories. The nature of the stories, character development, and plotlines necessarily invites the question: “What is this about?” What seems like relatively normal story development . . . Continue reading →