Posters promoting the release of Demi Lovato’s latest album have been banned and taken down across London for causing offense to Christians. And it was offensive.
Today, the nation celebrates what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 94th birthday. Sharon Shahid once openly wondered whether his famed essay, Letter from Birmingham Jail, “would have made such a lasting impression or had as powerful an impact if today’s instant communication devices existed, and if someone smuggled… a mobile phone into his cell. What would have happened if he texted the famous letter or used Twitter…?”
Augustine had tried reading the Scriptures as a teenager but was not impressed. At the time he had been in love with beautiful language, and the language of Scripture had seemed dull and plain. But years had passed since then. Under Ambrose’s influence, the simplicity of Scripture had begun to sound like the simplicity of the profound.
What should you make of randomly glancing at your watch and reading 5:55 a.m., only to glance randomly again later that day and have it read 5:55 p.m.? It is without question that the Bible clearly affirms the symbolic significance of certain numbers. But this is very different than what is going on with angel numbers.
Every now and then I get asked what kind of church Meck is. It’s hard to know how best to answer because it’s not always clear what aspect of Meck’s identity they want to know about. When some people ask, all they want to know is if we’re a Christian church. And, of course, we are.
What would a set of New Year’s resolutions look like for you and your church, your role as a leader, or simply as someone who wants to live a life of strategic Kingdom investment?
This is the time to recap the year that was. And what a year it was. There are a number of ways to do it, many that are interesting. You can look at a year in terms of notable deaths, viral events, political rises and falls, etc.
There are at least two overlooked aspects of the story of Joseph and Mary. Yet knowing about these two dynamics to their life adds even more wonder to the Christmas story.
In 1897, Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, a coroner’s assistant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was asked by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia, whether Santa Claus really existed. He suggested that she write The Sun, then a prominent New York City newspaper, because “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.”
As a pastor of a church that will not be holding services on Christmas Day nor New Year’s Day for that matter (though our Online Campus will be operating in full force), what in the world am I thinking? Several things, actually.