Each year as we approach the holiday season, our preparations for Christmas include revisiting the events surrounding the birth of Our Lord. Bethlehem,1 the shepherds, and the angels are all familiar to us. But not much is generally known about the mysterious "Magi" who came to worship the infant Jesus.

Most of us take our physical world for granted. To many, our physical world is all that is truly "real." But the more we learn from modern science, the more illusive and intangible our "reality" becomes.

What a wonderful topic to discuss this month: Knowing how much God loves us! It's amazing to me that we "happen" to be in this particular section of the book at this time, but certainly, it's not by coincidence. The whole reason for the season is God's Love!

We don't like to think about death. It's not a pleasant subject, and we avoid even discussing it seriously or giving it any diligent study. If our career plans involved a foreign assignment, our desk would be littered with brochures and travel folders as we would try learn all we could about our forthcoming destination.

Can we choose to go "against the tide" and do what God has asked when we really don't feel like it, want to or even think it will work? Will God honor a choice like this?

The Book of Genesis presents a disturbing problem for many Bible-believing Christians. Did God really create the heaven and the earth in just six 24-hour days? How does a serious student of the Torah - the five books of Moses - reconcile the Genesis account with the "billions of years" encountered in the dictums of astronomy, geology, et al?

This is always a difficult time for Christians, especially those with children. It has been suggested that for a Christian to be asked to celebrate Halloween is like asking a Holocaust survivor to celebrate Hitler's birthday! It is also a dangerous time for some, since many of the seemingly "harmless" involvements associated with Halloween can also be "entries" for the occult, and can prove very tragic for the unwary.

We have found that even as Christians, our own thoughts, emotions and desires determine most aspects of our lives. The question is: How can we go against the tide and choose to do what God has asked, when we really don't feel like it, want to or think it will work? Will God honor something we choose by faith, but really don't feel?

There are some surprises - and some very serious concerns - lying behind the meaning of "a name." (Hebrew: shem; Greek: onoma; Latin: nomen.) A "name" is that by which a person, place or thing is marked and known.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Esther) cover about 100 years, closing the Old Testament historical books. The books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles closed with the Southern Kingdom ("Judah") going into captivity.

Last month we continued our series Against the Tide: Getting Beyond Ourselves by focusing on the subject of single-mindedness vs. double-mindedness. In the Greek, single-minded means only one life is being lived; whereas, double-minded means two lives are being lived.

The recent discovery that the speed of light is not a constant has created quite a stir—and rethinking—in both physics and cosmology. However, there does appear to be at least two intrinsic constants in the universe: π and e.

In previous articles we reviewed the Biblical basis which led scholars to anticipate, over the many centuries, a reemergence of the Roman Empire. Clearly portrayed in Daniel's several prophecies, the sequence of conquering empires from Babylon, to Persia, to the Greeks, and ultimately to Rome have each followed the Biblical scenario.

Every week I go out of my way to speak to teenagers just to see what's going on in their minds. Too often the answer is, "Nothin'." Public school students seem to have this glassy, disorganized, disoriented look about them. They're preoccupied with things that don't matter, especially image and conforming to peer pressure.

II Corinthians 10:5-6 gives us a very important directive. It tells us to "take every thought captive" and to deal with the thoughts that are not of faith. God knows that taking every thought captive is critical because our thoughts are the first to be triggered in the chain-reaction of our souls.

The mysterious Red Planet is going to put on a show this month. It has been getting progressively closer to Earth each night and will continue to grow larger and brighter. By late August it will be about 191 million miles closer, and the reddish point of light will appear six times larger and shine some 85 times brighter than it normally does.

In our previous articles we reviewed some of the reasons Bible scholars have been anticipating a "Revived Roman Empire" as part of the prelude to the "Last Days."  Just as Daniel had predicted, the Babylonian Empire was ultimately conquered by the Persians; the Persians were, in turn, conquered by the Greeks; and, the Greeks were conquered by the Romans.

In last month's article we reviewed some of the reasons why Bible scholars have been anticipating a "Revived Roman Empire" as part of the prelude to the "Last Days."  Just as Daniel had predicted,1 the Babylonian Empire was ultimately conquered by the Persians; the Persians were, in turn, conquered by the Greeks; and, the Greeks were conquered by the Romans.  But who conquered the Romans?

The power of our choice - what does this really mean and why is it so important? God has given us the incredible gift of free choice - the free choice to either follow His will moment by moment or the free choice to follow what we think and feel. Just how important are these moment-by-moment choices?

The recently proposed "Road Map" peace plan has been met with both criticism and support. Despite hopes to the contrary, many doubt this latest effort will succeed where others have failed so many times before. How is this plan different from its predecessors? Is peace between Israelis and Palestinians possible?