There’s been a lot of division over Caro Claire Burke’s novel, Yesteryear, especially in the Christian community. Some people praise it for exposing the dangers of performative faith and the hypocrisy that can exist within church culture. Others view it as an unfair caricature of Western Christianity. Both reactions raise an important question: How should Christians read stories that critique Christians and the church? For those of you who haven’t read it, I can give a quic

What does Colossians 3 have to teach us regarding worship (besides the obvious)? I’m sure many of us are familiar with verses 16 and 17: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Although many theologians have

“When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.” — Acts 27:1-2 In Acts 27, we follow Paul as a prisoner. He's awaiting trial and has appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen, so he's put on a ship bound for Italy. That's when things stop going according to plan. “Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Da

I grew up watching The X-Files, so you must forgive me if I have an unusual interest in “little green men” from outer space. When I was working on my undergraduate degree in astrophysics twenty years ago, I was always fascinated by the chapters at the end of the astronomy textbooks with titles like “Astrobiology” or “The Search for Life.” At that time, astronomers were finding the first observable evidence of planets beyond our own solar system. There were fewer than 80 verif