The desert. What grows in the desert? John the Baptist “appeared” in the desert, the scripture story tells us, and begins wreaking havoc, the likes of which have not been seen...

Christ is drawing, drawing near, Christ is coming, coming here!” So ends a stanza of Tom H. Troeger’s Advent hymn, “Wild the Man and Wild the Place.” The Romans writer, Paul,...

God, the Eternal Giver; humankind, the eternal receiver. This Advent we receive once again the amazing gift of God’s love. A gift we could not give ourselves: the gift of God...

This psalm, in its references to both king and king’s son, brings immediately to mind David and Solomon. In this psalm attributed to King Solomon, the psalmist asks the Holy One...

The nature channels on television offer great episodes on strange animal buddies: a deer that comes to the fence every morning and runs up and down playing with a dachshund; a...

Frustrated gardeners and farmers of the world, unite! By late November, even the fall greens are looking pretty brown, but we can’t risk our emotional health by pulling out the seed...

England feared invasion by Hitler’s armies. Through the summer months of 1940, fear, uncertainty, and a kind of paralysis grew among the population. Government used all means available to bolster morale,...

Paul writes this letter several decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christian believers in Rome need encouragement. Paul knows many of them himself, as Romans 16 indicates. He...

Chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew emphasize persons’ taking responsibility for their own salvation. We “must be ready.” But in the meantime, what about the world and those who don’t seem...

Thanksgiving Day as embraced in the United States wonderfully asserts the place and power of love and gratitude within families—a wholesome national celebration that other nations may regard as exceptional. Ties...