Sunday night, the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons will shove each other around on synthetic grass for seven pounds of sterling silver. And millions will be watching.

Super Bowl 50 drew 112 million viewers. It’s a major cultural moment, and with that many eyes on the screen, it’s a once-a-year marketing opportunity. A year ago, 62 commercials were scattered during the game breaks. Major corporations plan and rehearse all year for one coveted 30-second spot ($5 million each!). Somet..

What is the “word of faith” movement? Is it biblical?
Miracles in our Mouths?I remember hearing a pastor of a large megachurch say, “You’ve got a miracle in your mouth. You can speak things into being that are not yet.” When I heard it, it actually reminded me of a Bible verse where it says, “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:9), but the “he” wasn’t a man, it was God. It’s similar to when “God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light” (Gen 1:3). W..

A few differences between preaching and teaching

By
Zach J. Hoag

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February 2, 2017

One of my core callings (you know, besides writing and binge-watching prestige dramas) is preaching. And, there’s a difference between preaching and teaching. Over the years I’ve struggled to understand and express this, and honestly I’ve heard it expressed rather poorly in the past.

Some folks (who lean more charismatic and pentecostal) will denigrate teaching, implicitly if not explicitly..

He told us how many of them did not cry the first night.

In 2004 I learned about foster care from Perry Downs, a long-time professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He and his wife had taken in many children over the years. When he would check on them, they were screaming into their pillows. They had learned that they would be beaten if they cried, so he would only see silent screams.

Twelve years and a few kids later, my wife and I have opened our home to foster children. We have be..

If confession is good for the soul, then writing this post should be like spring cleaning for my heart. Hi, my name’s David and I have a football problem.
I’m a loyal, 3rd-Generation Miami Dolphin fan (don’t laugh… “it’s root-root-root for the home team. If they don’t win, it’s a shame”). I’ve rooted for them since I was little and Dan “The Man” Marino was lighting up the record books. I rooted for them when they went 1-16, with their only win coming off a last-second field goal against a strugg..

Every day, disease eroded her youthful loveliness.

Every minute, her mother stood at her bedside and cherished her.

My patient was a teenage girl, and when jaundice sallowed her face to mustard color, her mother massaged her skin with jasmine lotion. When her eyes, vacant and bloodshot, darted about the room in delirium, her mother papered the walls with photographs and piled favorite toys around her.

The ventilator creaked and sighed, and beloved songs filled the room. In language appr..

What President Trump could mean for mainline Christianity

By
Erik Parker
ChristianWeek Columnist
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February 1, 2017

Since that fateful early morning announcement on November 9 that Donald Trump had been elected president, I have felt like we have been living in the opening scenes of one of those movies. You know, the ones where oblivious and unassuming people are living in a world that is about to be completely changed for the worse, but no one believes it. You know..

God has given you so many limitations because he loves you.

If you’re like most people, you don’t feel loved by your limitations. You feel confined, stunted, trapped, and exposed by them. You feel discouraged by how weak you are and how many things you can’t do well or at all. You might even be tempted to resent God for equipping you with what looks like a stingy allotment of abilities.

But that’s only because you’re mainly looking at yourself from the wrong perspective, which is looking to..