I know it is not even thanksgiving yet, but there seems to be a lot of confusion about Christmas. Let us start with a bit of history from Christmas past. Christmas began as the week long pagan celebration of Saturnalia from December 17 to 25. During this time, people would practice all kinds of debase things. Roman communities would pick a person…

Juliana is 5 years old, lives in Oregon, and she has an incurable neurodegenerative disorder called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease or CMT. It is one of the most common inherited neurological disorders affecting about 1 in 2,500 people in the United States. The disorder impacts the peripheral nerves which are outside the brain and spinal cord and supply the muscles and sensory organs in…

Have you ever read a familiar Bible story and noticed something you never saw before? This happened to me the other night in our Family Group study. We are going through the book, So You Want to Be Happy, by Eric Owens. He is showing what true happiness looks like, and why we as Christians should be motivated to be happy despite…

I got called a Mormon twice this month. Why? Some people don’t know that Mormons are not the only missionaries, while others are quick to label a handsome young missionary as a Mormon. It really frustrates me because I am obviously not a Mormon, and it calls attention to another aspect of this “perverse generation” (Acts 2:40)—the contamination of pure religion to…

You have probably seen this, a pool of shallow water that has no fresh source. This pool does nothing. It seems to be a petri dish of single-cell organisms and an unnamable slimy substance. It is not fit for use or consumption without serious rehabilitation. This is what we call stagnant water. Growing stagnant spiritually is a relatively easy process. There are…

They believed a lie and they ate— Eve then Adam. With that act came the responsibility to discern between good and evil. They immediately were ashamed and sought to hide themselves, even from each other. When God came to the garden, they were hiding. He asked them, “Who told you were naked?” The sin was a burden that cost them the close…

You may be too busy to even finish reading this article. How many times have you said it? Someone tries to make plans and you are “too busy” to do anything. Solomon wrote, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven” (Ecc. 3:1). Lately, there doesn’t seem to be enough time for anything…

Syria, most of us know very little about their uncivil civil war or the political policies and reasons for its existence. You may have heard about the millions of people fleeing the country. In 2011, when the conflict started, there were 100,000 refugees. That number has grown exponentially to 3.8 million that have fled the country and 7.2 million that moved to…