A thirteen-year-old girl named Anni is seated at the piano on the stage at Carnegie Hall. She is wearing a neat white dress, and she’s playing brilliantly. The crowd applauds enthusiastically. That was one month ago. Three years ago, it was a different story. Then, Anni was huddled in a jail cell in China. She was kept there overnight without food, water, or even access to a toilet. The Chinese government had locked her up as retaliation for her father’s activities protesting China’s … [Read more...]
Observatory earth
A stunning astronomical event next year will shed light on our world’s intelligent design. How? By leaving us in darkness. In Mark Twain’s classic story, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” a denizen of nineteenth-century New England named Hank Morgan mysteriously finds himself thrown back into sixth-century England. The resourceful Hartford man, taken for a magician and sentenced to burn at the stake, recalls reading about a total solar eclipse that took place on that date in … [Read more...]
Luke nails it
Acts 19 starts with Paul leaving Apollos in charge of the church in Corinth while he continues his missionary journey. It ends with Paul’s encounter with an angry mob. And, as a recent article in Biblical Archaeological Review tells us, it’s a very reliable depiction of life in the Roman world. Upon his arrival in Ephesus, Paul meets some believers whose instruction was incomplete. He teaches them about the Holy Spirit and baptizes them in the name of the Lord Jesus. But then things get … [Read more...]