Taking God Seriously

The Book of Kings #23

The Middle East is a very curious place, but I hardly need to tell you that. For instance, everyone learns the parable of the Good Samaritan in church...

The Book of Kings #22

Reading through the stories of the last kings of the house of Israel, I always get a feeling of ineffable sadness. That nation had been served by two...

The Book of Kings #21

It was now 126 years after the death of Solomon and the division of the Kingdom of Israel into two houses—the House of Israel and the House of Judah....

The Book of Kings #20

It is a sobering thought to consider that the Kingdom of Israel was once ruled by a woman—but not a very good woman. To secure her throne, she had all...

Son of Man

Are You Angry?

Are you angry? Are you mad at what is going on in government? If you are a Republican, you are probably mad at the Democrats. If you are a Democrat, y...

The Book of Kings #19

Evil has lasting consequences. Not only was King Ahab corrupt, so were his children, who learned in their mother how to get the things they wanted. Th...

The Book of Kings #18

All through this period of Kings, there is pattern that develops. The people would fall away, go after idols, and suffer all the results of that. In J...

The Book of Kings #17

The days of the prophet Elisha seem to have been somewhat unique in the history of Israel. Prophecy was vital in those days, but most of it was delive...

The Book of Kings #16

I’m still amazed at how many would-be prophets want to take on the mantle of Elijah. I think I mentioned that I have met three or four Elijahs in my t...

Thankful for Freedom

Leadership Found

In all of the Bible, who is the greatest example of leadership (apart from Jesus, of course)? Without a doubt, it’s David. When you speak of David in...

The Shield of Thanksgiving

The Book of Kings #15

One of the most dramatic moments in all the stories of the Bible is that moment when Elijah and Elisha have crossed over the river Jordan, and a great...

The Book of Kings #14

It has been 62 years since the death of Solomon. For 62 years there have been two Israels: the House of Israel, now with a capital in Samaria; the Hou...

The Book of Kings #13

Not everyone gets this, but let me have a run at it anyway: God does not care for centralized authority. That is not to say he hasn’t allowed it. And...

Leadership Lost

In my time, I have followed a lot of election campaigns. I remember sitting in a car, in the rain, in England listening to the Democratic National Con...

The Book of Kings #12

I simply cannot imagine a greater prophet than Elijah. He was not a smooth man, like I suspect Isaiah was. Isaiah was a poet, and a great one at that....

The Book of Kings #11

He is the archetype of all prophets; his name was Elijah. Probably one of the reasons he is so well known is because he is so persistent in the Bible—...

The Book of Kings #10

I was standing, looking out an open window in my hotel room at Victoria Station in London one night. My wife and I had been to the theater, had just g...

The Book of Kings #9

When you settle in to read the Bible, you run into any number of difficulties—none of them fatal, of course. The sense of the Bible is not that hard,...

Master & Lord

At the Last Supper, after washing his disciples' feet, Jesus said something of singular importance. He said, You call me master and lord, and you say...

Leadership in Crisis

By now, everyone realizes that we have a leadership crisis, not only in our country, but in the world at large. I wonder how we got to this place? Whe...

The Book of Kings #8

Never take counsel of your fears. The saying is often attributed to Andrew Jackson who also, plainly, read his Bible. It is fascinating how often fear...

The Book of Kings #7

When you read those books of the Bible that contain the history of Israel, the lessons come at you one after the other. There is a man in the Book of...

The Book of Kings #6

When you are reading the history in the Bible, you have to resist the temptation to see things in terms familiar to the modern reader. Take the idea o...

The Book of Kings #5

One of the most incredible museums that the world has ever known was also one that hardly anyone ever got to visit; it was the temple that King Solomo...

Courage and the Church

We Christians have an anxiety about us—about who we are, about our failures, about our differences, about our spats—and we let these anxieties prevent...

The Undivided Man

Do you suppose God would ever call a man to be a lawyer or, perhaps, a governor? (And, no, I am not about to tell a lawyer joke.) There is a funny thi...

The Book of Kings #4

Sometimes, in the Bible, you come across descriptions, details, and lists that can be a little hard to follow. One example of this is the description...

The Book of Kings #3

In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give you. And Solomon said, You have shown unto your servan...

The Book of Kings #2

Nothing is ever easy in the Middle East, and the transition from the man who was Israel’s greatest fighting king to her greatest peacetime king was st...

The Book of Kings #1

Abraham, the father of the faithful, is obviously the greatest figure in the Old Testament. But the greatest man in the history of Israel has to be Ki...

Halloween, Ghosts, and Spirits

Halloween is an odd event—very odd, in a way, because in its origins it was not evil; it was actually good. A number of you probably know that Hallowe...

Halloween

Excuse me for asking, but what’s wrong with you people? Why on earth would you dress up your children like witches, or hobgoblins, ghosts, demons, dea...

Negotiating with the Devil

When I was growing up, Fascism was a political term in common use. I was seven years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the years ahead saw...

Opposing Evil #2

Christian people have often failed in their responsibilities to their fellow man. This is not terribly surprising. After all, we are human. Jesus, in...

Opposing Evil #1

The German people are, in every sense of the word, a great people—intelligent, innovative, accomplished. But for me, the question about the Germans is...

A Treaty with the Devil

Would you make a treaty with the Devil? It is a silly question, isn’t it? You would never do anything like that. And yet, nations do it all the time.<...