“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). This is a pretty startling statement from Jesus. This is something we’d expect old Beelzebub to spew forth as he foamed at the mouth. It’s not the kind of thing you’d expect Jesus to say. It is, undoubtedly, one of his least quoted utterances. Out of context, it sounds as though he’s about to bring hell on earth. When most of us think of a place called hell, we envision flames, torment, and punishment. These are ...
In 1841, Edgar Allen Poe published one of the first locked-room murder mysteries, and since then many authors have offered variations on the theme. A single door stands locked from the inside, and must be forced open. The room has no chimney for escape to the roof, no false walls to a secret passage, no trap door. The only window remains bolted from the inside. Yet the poor man or woman lies dead on the floor, obviously the victim of foul play. In print, on stage and screen, a locked-room mystery centers ...
The beauty of the scriptures is indisputable. But their revelatory substance, vast and deep in nature, contains a potency that is hard to describe. Every word is pregnant, every word infused with deep meaning, fascinating connections, but most of all, every word wields the power to point toward God and God’s truth in deeply powerful, transfiguring ways. Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances express a particular richness of this special metaphorical infusion. But they also pack a power punch of what it means ...
Have you ever seen an archaeologist uncovering an artifact or a set of bones? It’s a painstaking business. They can’t just dig right in or they could risk harming the remains in the process. Instead, the archaeologist uses light, gentle brushes, blowing off the excess dust, sweeping away debris, until the artifact reveals itself. Then they celebrate the find! Although classified in universities as a science, archaeology, like most restorative processes, many would say, is also an art. Likewise, the study ...
