As my wife and I entered the old Spanish fort on the island of Vieques, I immediately noticed the statue of a white woman with flowing blond hair and bright blue eyes. She was holding a child of similar complexion. The Roman Catholic symbolism made it obvious that...

For more than a year, people nearly everywhere on the face of the earth have been asked, encouraged, instructed, urged, required, or otherwise prompted to wear a mask or face covering in public. Whatever your opinion of the present focus on mask wearing, there seems...

In May 1978, I walked into a prison in Africa to speak with the nine men who were suspected of murdering my parents. After 34 years of faithful service to God, my missionary parents had been brutally murdered 10 days earlier near their home in Yagoua, Cameroon.  I...

"How can you say one interpretation is right, and another is wrong? Aren’t they all just interpretations?” I hear this question in the New Testament classes I teach every year. Usually, when my students express this, they are sincerely wrestling with an important...

What do Amy Grant, Taylor Swift, Lauren Daigle, and Dr. Seuss have in common? They have all been “canceled.” In the 1990s, Christian bookstores pulled Grant’s music from their shelves after her divorce. Swift was publicly shamed when the hashtag...

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made it clear that everyone with whom we come in contact is our neighbor. Jesus used the example of someone from Samaria being the neighbor to a beaten and dying Jew. Normally, Jews and Samaritans had nothing to do with each...

"One cherished value at Community of Joy Church in Eagan, Minnesota is right in the name—community. This means spending time together both during worship and at other planned and unplanned gathering times. Equally important is the idea of extending that community to...

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep...

You’ve been carrying around a COVID bubble for well over a year now. It’s like the old concept of “personal space,” only bigger—a six-foot-radius circle. This bubble is inherently distancing and isolating. Most of us have felt lonely. Some real human needs are not met...

The old man greeted me kindly and offered a cup of coffee as I entered his home. He and his wife were members of our congregation, but due to health issues they hadn’t attended in years. Eager to get to know them, I accepted the offer for coffee and took a seat at...

How is Jesus fully God and fully human? I do not think I understand it well, and I cannot explain it well with big theological words. But maybe, as a mama, I feel some sort of understanding when I think of him in his final moments, caring for his mama. My mind, with...

Why did Joseph wake Mary in the middle of the night and tell her to gather her things quickly so they could flee to Egypt? Jesus was in danger. The forces of darkness were intent on killing him. A spiritual battle was engaged. The enemy of our souls had reason to fear...