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At Christmastime: Faith and Memory

The Christmas tree is tall and wide, and its sharp smell fills the room. It seems to own the space around it, and the rest of us hover in its shadow, coming and going like ghosts or puffs of wind. Somehow, the tree feels more real than the thing we call “reality.” My child self…
December 19, 2025
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A Review of Word Made Fresh

If poetry is ever going to matter again to Christians, we’ll need interesting, winsome, accessible teachers and books to explain the value of verse and show us how it works. One doesn’t naturally “develop a taste” for poetry. We must be taught. Abram Van Engen’s Word Made Fresh can refresh our palate and nourish our…
December 18, 2025
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Making Way for Gabriel’s Message

When the angel Gabriel visits Mary to announce Christ’s birth, his final words are “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37 KJV). This proclamation resonates with Genesis 18:14, where the Lord asks Abraham, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” These two verses also resonate with a time later in Luke, when…
December 17, 2025
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A Diamond, a Magnifying Glass, and a Guard: Three Analogies for Truth in an AI World

As the new academic year began, it seemed the whole nation turned its attention to artificial intelligence. News feeds such as “White House Announces New AI Education Initiative,” Esther Wickham. “White House Announces New AI Education Initiative,” AOL The Center Square, September 8, 2025, https://www.aol.com/articles/white-house-announces-ai-education-000000126.html. “Confusing School AI Policies Leave Families Guessing,”Megan Morrone. “Confusing School…
December 16, 2025

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Share the Story of Chanukah With Your Students This Christmas

"Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the Temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade" – John 10:22-23 Beginning with their enslavement in Egypt, when Pharaoh ordered Hebrew midwives to murder all newborn Jewish males, throughout Israel's exile and captivity under the Babylonians and the Assyrians, to this…
December 13, 2022
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Students as Image Bearers of God: Preparing for the First Day of Class

“Recognition is the first human quest.” Andy Crouch begins his latest book with this statement and then expands on our desires to be recognized as persons—individuals who have a place in this world. In The Life We’re Looking for: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, Crouch suggests that technology has not succeeded in promoting true…
December 12, 2022
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Am I a House Divided?

My dissertation and early scholarly research focused on investigating the issue of work-religion conflict (WRC). WRC is a specific type of inter-role conflict whereby the role pressures associated with one’s work and religion domains are perceived, in some respects, as being incompatible with one another. A man of faith who often comes to my mind…
December 6, 2022
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Dealing with Our Discouragement and Burnout

Decades ago, I was burned out. It was only weeks before a planned semester sabbatical that I’d been looking forward to. I had become disappointed in my university, my colleagues, and myself. I was deeply discouraged. I wondered why I was working so hard for students and a school that didn’t seem to appreciate my…
December 5, 2022
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Book Review – Wisdom-Based Business: Applying Biblical Principles and Evidence-Based Research for a Purposeful and Profitable Business

In Wisdom-Based Business, Hannah Stolze demonstrates that biblical wisdom is useful, indeed necessary, for modern business practices and that this has been confirmed by many business researchers. Stolze takes the perspective that the purpose of business is kingdom impact and then develops a model in which biblical wisdom forms the building blocks for that redemptive…
December 1, 2022
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Reclaiming Awe: An Advent Prayer Experiment with My Students

“Are you too comfortable with God?” The speaker’s comment took me by surprise and brought back a flood of emotions. Throughout the years, I’ve often wrestled with balancing the transcendence and intimacy of God. I’m not alone. In the same passage, the psalmist both states God is “the great King above all gods” and “we…
November 29, 2022
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Give Them the Gift of Hesed

She calls out to the man on the street Sir, can you help me? It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep Is there somewhere you can tell me? He walks on, doesn't look back He pretends he can't hear her Starts to whistle as he crosses the street Seems embarrassed to be there Oh, think…
November 28, 2022
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Gratitude Needs Direction

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Col. 3:16 For Christians, most virtue words do not describe virtues unless they are directed properly. To put one’s faith,…
November 23, 2022
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Right in Front of Your Face: A Thanksgiving Meditation

(John Everett Millais - Blind Girl)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Girl#/media/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_The_Blind_Girl,_1854-56.jpg In 1856, the British artist John Everett Millais painted The Blind Girl, a captivating image of two young sisters in a rain-drenched field. Their clothes are threadbare, and the youngest has no cloak; she sidles next to her sister, sharing her covering. They clasp hands tightly and unconsciously, as…
November 18, 2022