When God raised Jesus from the dead, God proved that everything Jesus had claimed about himself was true. He wasn't just a remarkable and inspirational teacher who died an unfortunate death. He wasn't just a man who offered forgiveness from sin. Rather, the resurrection ...

Jesus died a criminal's death. He was executed in the most brutal method the Romans had at their disposal, crucifixion. And his closest friends were very afraid that their death was next. Other than John, the men who had been in his close band of disciples didn't even witness ...

I have written a lot about the benefits of Christianity, but if Christianity is just about satisfying my emotional needs, well, how do I know that it's true? Maybe it's just a powerful story that makes me feel good, much like the comfort of watching a movie where it all ...

(Note to readers: the posts that will go up this week come from a series of talks I gave last month. If you'd like to read the earlier talks, go back to November and look at posts named Life With God, Life Without God, and then in December, Life with God.)

As regular ...

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

It's a little late in the game, but I've been meaning to recommend a book: God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas. It's a beautiful (including color pictures of major works of art throughout the centuries) book with reflections on Advent by poets, theologians, and ...

Two quotations worth pondering, the first from one of the most influential thinkers of the past two centuries:

"With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, ...

New Post on the Park Forum: "Obama's Take on Good and Evil"

(I'm in the midst of writing final papers for the two classes I've taken this semester. The following thoughts were prompted by a paper for my class on Human Uniqueness from a Theological and Biological perspective...)

The Christian Church has a long history of determining that ...

New Post on the Park Forum: Ethics and Immigration.
Incidentally, I recommend reading the NYT article upon which this is based. Not every day that a pastor prays his way onto a plane in order to comfort an Indonesian at risk of deportation...

As we walked away from Penny's annual IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting yesterday, I said to Peter, "I think Penny goes to the best pre-school in the nation."

I'm not kidding. For an hour, five professionals sat in a conference room and talked about our child. The ...

We drove to Maryland and back yesterday for our fourth annual Danish Christmas celebration (Peter's family on his dad's side is Danish). Six hours in the car, three of which included steady rain. Two children who skipped naps (although as a result they were blissfully asleep ...