When I was a teen, bar codes—those “Universal Product Codes” that are printed on everything we purchase—were a little over a decade old. They were also said to be the mark of the beast the apostle John mentions in Revelation 13. Since John said that the time was coming when one could neither buy nor…

There has been an alarming increase in anti-Asian violence in our country. It seems that every day we learn of a new incident in which a person of Asian descent—often an older men or woman—was viciously attacked and told he or she does not “belong here”. This sort of violence is not new; the target…

My wife has a friend who lives near Chicago. They don’t see each other all that often, but they connect somewhat regularly over text and email. There are definitely no Zoom meetings and absolutely no phone calls—I have trouble getting my wife to answer my calls. (Apparently introverts don’t like talking to people. Weird.) Occasionally…

Throughout the latter half of John’s Gospel we’ve seen the incredible importance of the local church. In John 13 Jesus washed the disciples’ feet—something normally done by one’s self or by a slave—and then he had the audacity to tell them to do the same for each other. Serving one another in the church is…