James 1:2-8 When you read the book of James, it can seem that he had a lot of favorite teachings, wrote them out on slips of paper, threw them up in the air and when they fell, picked them up in any order and put them in a letter. After all, who starts a letter…
James 1:1-4 Sometimes, in the first couple sentences of a book, you can tell if reading it would be a waste of time. If you are reading about taking walks in the forest and the first sentence is: “If you see a snake, pick it up by its tail and see if it is poisonous,”…
Matthew 1:18-25, 2:13-15 If you were sitting here at RIC one year ago, which of the events of 2011 would you have predicted? There had already been two weeks of demonstrations in Tunisia, but would you have predicted there would be a regime change in not only Tunisia, but also Egypt and Libya? Or would…
Matthew 2:1-11 The origin of giving gifts at Christmas has a number of different sources. In Matthew’s gospel we read that the magi came to see Jesus in Bethlehem, about a year after he was born, with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Although this is a logical precedent for giving gifts at Christmas, it…
Meditation One month ago, four days after arriving in Chiang Mai, Thailand to visit our daughter and her family, I began to feel achy and tired. I had a fever and began sleeping during the day. After five days of this, I went to the hospital to confirm that this was the flu and not…