John 1:12
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.
In the early 1980s, Cary Grant was in his 80s and was still healthy as a horse.  A reporter asked him the secret of his longevity and he replied: “First, you have to pick your parents […]

Psalm 100:3
Know that the LORD is God!
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Being city folk we tend to hear biblical references to “God our shepherd” or to us as his “sheep” in terms of sentimental greeting cards.  All those blue-eyed, blonde Jesuses from […]

Luke 14:21
Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.
The happy and contented burghers in Luke’s Parable of the Wedding Feast are the exact opposite of the great saint whose feast we celebrate today: St. Gregory the Great.  They excused themselves from […]

When Christians write about science, they are imposing their religion on the free pursuit of TRUTH. When scientists pontificate about religion, they are just innocently writing about science with no agenda at all. Nope. None whatsoever. Really.
Case in point: This little bulletin from the Ministry of Truth in the Dictatorship of Relativism called “Are Scientists […]

2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.
One man has remarked, “The good news about the Catholic Church is: it’s like a big family.  The bad news about the Catholic Church is: it’s like a big family.”  St. Paul knew […]

Matthew 5:4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
A few years ago, a proud and wealthy man remarked publicly that Christianity was a “religion for losers”.  The sad and comic thing about this was that the man seemed to be utterly unaware that we are all—even proud and rich men—destined to lose: if […]

James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him.
In his wonderful little story The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis takes us on a bus ride from Hell to Heaven where damned souls are offered the opportunity, if they will […]

Acts 3:6-7
But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 
A wise man once said, “You can never get […]

Psalm 20:7
Some boast of chariots, and some of horses;
but we boast of the name of the LORD our God.
With the exception of a few salad days during the Davidic dynasty, Israel was never great shakes in the Political Clout department.  They went from being nomads, to slaves, to farmers, to a kingdom which was the […]

Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
If you are afflicted, brokenhearted, or captive […]

Glenn Reynolds (aka “Instapundit”) is the blogosphere’s resident libertarian transhumanist. We owe him a debt for leading the charge in making the blogosphere an important counterweight to the Usual Stuff from the mainstream media. And he has lived that belief personally by becoming the single most influential member of the New Media, simply by setting […]

Deuteronomy 6:4-7
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your […]

John 14:6
I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.
It is very easy for us to fall prey to the notion that life is primarily about mastering some technique or arcane body of knowledge.  Lots and lots of religions and philosophies have at their core […]

Isaiah 53:5
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.
If there is any passage in Old Testament Scripture that mysteriously sums up the gospel, this is it.  Jesus Christ has borne on his back the […]

Jonah 2:1
Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish.
Poor Jonah.  He played the game we’ve all played since Adam and Eve hid from God in the Garden.  He got the silly notion in his head that God couldn’t see what he was up to if he ran off and […]

Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
This is a verse we believe on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Other days of the week, […]

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Periodically, somebody comes up with a brand new religion or philosophy or theory of ethics they claim is “ground-breaking” or “revolutionary”.  But trying to come up […]

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
In Greek mythology, there was a dangerous place in the sea near the world’s end with two terrible rocks called Scylla and Charybdis.  In avoiding the one, sailors usually smashed into the […]

Exodus 15:13
Thou hast led in thy steadfast love the people whom thou hast redeemed, thou hast guided them by thy strength to thy holy abode.
Ancient Israel was a people on the way.  The central and formative experience of their history was the Exodus from Egypt and conquest and settlement of Canaan, the promised land.  In […]

Here in Seattle, the Land at the End of History, all you have to do to induce complete credulity in the average Seattleite is preface whatever quack junk you are palming off on our highly sophisticated urban post-Christian crowd with “the Ancient Chinese art of” [insert quack junk]. After all, as we Seattleites all know, […]

Psalm 25:16-18
Turn thou to me, and be gracious to me; for I am lonely and afflicted.
Relieve the troubles of my heart,
and bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
Everybody has felt the way the psalmist in today’s verses feels.  As children, we all knew what it was to […]

Hebrews 11:1-2
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old received divine approval.
We live in a skeptical age.  We also live in an incredibly credulous age.  That’s not surprising, for people tend to see-saw between extremes.  Those who refuse to believe in […]

Lamentations 3:40
Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the LORD!
One of the great modern myths is the notion that absolutely all judgment of any kind is wrong.  It is true that Jesus said, “Judge not” (Matthew 7:1).  It is absurd falsehood to say that by this he meant any and all judgments of […]

Romans 7:15-19
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within […]

1 Peter 2:10
Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.
Many people have the notion that mercy means pretending a nasty sin was “nothing”.  In a quirky way, this is what keeps some of us from accepting forgiveness from God.  “How […]

Acts 1:3
To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God.
We live in a period where alleged “biblical scholars” are busily fleshing out the description Paul gives of fallen humanity in Romans 1:22: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools.”  […]

Philippians 3:10
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead.
Apart from the Resurrection, Christianity makes absolutely no sense.  The martyrs, smelling the grave from afar as a lover smells roses; the […]

Here’s a really cool site called Paleo-Future, devoted to chronicling the History of the Future. I’ve often thought such a subject would make a great book. After all, people have been making predictions forever. So, it would really be fun to see how the Assured Prophecies of Yesterday have panned out.
Browsing through Paleo-Future, I note […]

1 Samuel 17:36-37
“Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from […]

Jeremiah 29:1
These are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent  from Jerusalem to the elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the  prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile  from Jerusalem to Babylon.
It must have seemed to the exiles in Babylon that they had been picked out […]

1 Peter 4:10
As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.
The church teaches that there are two kinds of gifts given us by the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation.  The first kind are called the sanctifying gifts.  These are wisdom, understanding, knowledge, right judgment, courage, […]

Psalm 23:5
Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.
One of the hard facts of life is that we really do have enemies.  This is hard to take.  We try to be nice.  We pay our taxes, do our jobs, love our families and support […]

1 Timothy 5:8
If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Christian faith has always been measured (in the Catholic tradition) not by miracles or wonders, but by love. Miracles alone do not a saint make.  After all, Balaam’s […]

1 Thessalonians 1:6
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The remarkable thing about today’s verse is how Paul understands what it means to be an “imitator” of the Lord and his apostles.  He does not say, “You walked […]

In early August 2006, the Global War on Terror reached a new and disturbing phase when it was discovered that Terror has now recruited certain Liquids as deadly new allies in its bloodthirsty campaign to wipe out our freedom. As this dramatically heightened threat shows, Terror knows no bounds in its resourceful ability to find […]

Luke 14:28
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
Many people have the notion that the Church demands something called “blind faith.”  They think that Catholics would nod approvingly at the incredibly foolish advice given by Qui-gon Jinn to […]

John 1:48
Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
One theme that often comes through in conversion stories is struggle.  From Augustine’s Confessions to Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua to modern stories of conversion such as the accounts […]

2 Corinthians 6:1-2
Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.” Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
People who dabble in […]

Romans 8:26-27
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the […]

Luke 14:28-33
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build, and was […]

Psalm 1:6
The LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Scripture, in numerous places, sets before us the “Two Ways”: the way of darkness and the way of light, the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.  Do the writers really think life is that simple?  No.  […]

Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them: for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.
Henry David Thoreau once remarked that the mass of people live lives of quiet desperation.  That is why today’s verse is […]

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
The devil always sends lies into the world in pairs.  When God wants us to be aware of the complexity of a situation, […]

People with limited horizons tend to go for small and utterly implausible conspiracy theories. Blokes with some theory about the assassination of JFK are a dime a dozen. And for just that reason, they tend eventually to cancel each other out, leaving me simplistically thinking Lee Harvey Oswald was a trained marksman and a jerk […]

Proverbs 26:10
Like an archer who wounds everybody
is he who hires a passing fool or drunkard.
A wise man once said that all of human history can be summarized in two sentences.  The first is, “What could it hurt?” followed sometime later by, “How was I supposed to know?”  Those who work in the world of business […]

Ecclesiastes 7:8
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Long ago, the rich king Croesus boasted to a great sage of his wealth.  “Call no man happy till he is dead,” said the sage.  Later, Croesus was defeated in battle and brought […]

Matthew 13:44
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
These days, every time you open a newspaper or surf the Web, you get the feeling that everyone but you is […]

2 Peter 1:3-4
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is […]

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
Yesterday we talked about the difference between faith in Christ and “spirituality.” Today we note something central to true Christian faith: belief in the Word Made Flesh.  […]

Ephesians 5:15-16
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.
Periodically, the editors of the New York Times or CBS or some organ for Ted Turner venture out of their fluorescent-lit offices to see if Americans still take religion seriously.  Whenever […]