While I’m writing this, there is a great controversy with a proposal to build a mosque near ground zero in Manhattan. This growing issue has brought up other important questions. Events and issues like this can reveal much about the heart condition of a nation, and we need to understand what it is revealing.

     We cannot understand these times without understanding Islam. There has been a major campaign by Islamists to make the world believe that we cannot understand Islam and therefore should not even try. Many have bought into this lie, but in the last...

     I once watched the local news for thirty days straight to see if there was any good news. There was none reported. Of course, there was some good news, but just not newsworthy by present network standards. I turned on the news as I sat down to write this and was quickly overwhelmed by the problems and crises that came cascading down at me from the television set. It’s easy to understand why some are saying we’re in “the great time of trouble” now. How much worse could it get?

     If we ask those who survived...

     Compared to the kingdom of God, all of the issues of this present world are boring. We must be engaged in the issues of this present world, at least to the degree that is necessary in order for us to be the salt and light we’re called to be. However, to be this salt and light, we must see and live in the kingdom to demonstrate its alternative ways and wisdom.

     Sometimes this wisdom is spoken from the mouth of the most unlikely sources, like King Nebuchadnezzar which we see in Scripture, and in recent times,...

    I sometimes receive appeals from well-known, politically liberal Christians who want me and other conservatives to refrain from our criticism of President Obama, with one even calling this criticism “unchristian.” I responded by calling this request hypocritical. Admittedly, some criticism by conservatives has crossed a line or been too extreme, and I believe distorted. Even so, this appeal by liberal Christians for conservative Christians to be more restrained would seem more genuine if they had been more restrained in their criticisms of the more conservative President Bush, and advocated this restraint by their fellow liberals at that time....

     It now appears that more than half of the people in America are at least beginning to believe that there is an intentional dismantling of America’s strength and the basic pillars of our Republic. This includes an increasing number from the President’s own party. Just as recent tapes from Osama bin Laden have indicated that they were surprised by the response of America to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 911, it also seems that many in the Obama Administration have been surprised by the way Americans have arisen to counter its agenda. The...