Where is the Heart of God in Gaza?
Where is the Heart of God in Gaza? So many people being killed. So much suffering. If the Bible is true, God’s heart breaks for those civilians who are suffering. And it needs to be stopped. But there is so much more. God’s heart is also for Israel, his chosen people through whom the Messiah came, and around whom the end times is prophesied to play out. And who are constantly under threat or attack from those who surround them. Yet the group conveniently escaping most of the blame is the the group responsible for everything: Hamas. Israel’s main desire…
The Hand behind the Hand in the Middle East
The Middle East is going insane. We constantly see news about Islamists going ballistic everywhere. Yet for centuries Christians and Muslims lived together in peace, or at least respectfully side-by-side. What’s happened? Can the identifiable historical reasons really account for the degree of insanity? Or is there more? I have a theory: Every year increasingly more Muslims come to faith in Isa al Masih (Arabic for “Jesus the Messiah”). Most don’t identify themselves as “Christians,” and they don’t need to. The Holy Spirit of God penetrates every border and every restriction to reveal to people through dreams and visions typically…
Evil Is Not a Mental Illness
Contrary to popular feel-goodism / we’re-all-somehow-good-people liberal mindsets, evil is not a mental illness. Because so many people willfully blind themselves to this, they wonder how rampages like the recent one at UC Santa Barbara could happen. A young man was mentally ill. He rebuffed people’s friendliness then blamed them for rejecting him. Despite his kind parents’ every attempt to help him, he grew isolated and bitter, a victim consciousness driving him to rage. It’s not uncommon. As a pastor, I’ve encountered this kind of person many times. I understand such people; I have pity on them and want to help….
The Girls Who’ve Become “Our Girls”
“Bring back our girls.” Our girls. In the protracted tragedy that has become the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in norther Nigeria, the international cry of care and disgust has led much of the world to what seems to be a new step. Too often tragedies that unfold in Africa don’t receive nearly the attention or concern among Western nations (or Eastern for that matter) that tragedies in many other areas of the world. It has often seemed that if those who suffer are black Africans, the media doesn’t care much, and likewise citizens of developed nations–unless and until the tragedy…
When Happy and Horrified Are Neighbors
Tornado season is already kicking in furiously in the Southern states. The crazy temperature spikes in California remind me of the crazy polar vortex much of the country endured last winter. Temperature is nothing compared to having your home obliterated. Until we get the dreaded “Big One,” folks in Southern California will continue to bask, or sweat, while other citizens get walloped. Southern Cal’s turn will come though. How oddly life goes on while others suffer. It happens on a personal level as well. I’ll never forget how one night years ago Kim and I were enjoying our supper until…
