Blog
Paraskevidekatriaphobia (and other superstitions)
Would you board Flight 666 to HEL on Friday the 13th? Finnair flight AY666 to Helsinki (HEL) will operate today, and the flight is almost full.[1. The Belfast Telegraph, “Flight 666 goes to HEL on Friday 13,” http://goo.gl/kOJdY5, retrieved 13 September 2013.] It is...
Trick or retreat?
Growing up in South Africa, our only exposure to Halloween was TV and movies. Halloween was considered an American and European holiday. Nothing changed in our shops in October. Sweets did not go on sale. Costumes were not seen on the shelves. Trick or treating was...
Reflections on providence
Several weeks back, our pastor, in his Sunday evening preaching through Acts, reached Acts 18:18–28 in which Paul returns to Antioch following his second missionary journey and in which we are introduced to Apollos. The main theme of that particular sermon was the...
Lessons from a leader
My Bible reading recently brought me to the book of Deuteronomy, where an account of Moses recalling God’s refusal to grant him entrance to the Promised Land struck me. Recalling how he pleaded with God to let him cross Jordan, Moses said, “But the LORD was angry with...
Continuing thankfully
In the 2005 science fiction thriller, The Island, two clones, created for sole the purpose of providing organs for wealthy donors, escape their compound. At one point in the film, they encounter an individual who speaks of a “god complex.” One of the clones asks,...
The (fleeting) pleasures of sin
This past Sunday we spent our Family Bible Hour time in Colossians 3, which Paul opens with an exhortation to set our sights and affections on things above, not on things of the earth. He exhorts us to focus where Christ is. This stands in contrast to the closing...