Truth In a Sea of Lies
Truth is fundamental to human existence. It makes things work, just as lies tear things down. All civilizations and cultures have held it in the highest regard – considered necessary for keeping order within society. And though these statements may...
My Prayers for Billy
I grew up in a New Jersey suburb close to New York City. Larger than a small town, our community was really a small city. In 1971, our high school graduating class had many hundreds. As today, there were bullies, but it was not considered a problem back in...
Elvis Presley and His Anthem For Racial Harmony – ”If I Can Dream”
I first heard Elvis Presley perform “If I Can Dream” on December 3, 1968 as it premiered before my eyes in the finale of his televised “Elvis” special, later known as the '68 Comeback Special. Like its companion piece of the following year, “In the Ghetto,” it is a...
Whose Will Do You Really Serve: God’s or Your Own?
Listen to any prosperity gospel preacher and implicit in their teaching, couched in holy-sounding words, is the message that God doesn’t want you sick, poor or unhappy. He can make you healthy, prosperous and giddily happy if you follow their teachings, along with...
Skip James ‘Had the Blues for the Human Race’
Soul-filled Skip James “was possibly the strangest, and most complex of all Mississippi blues artists, and he is also one of the greatest.”
The Mozart of ‘Power Pop’: In Memoriam to Emitt Rhodes
In 1967 a prodigy of pop music appeared in southern California. Emitt Rhodes was a teenage wunderkind. His angelic tenor would soon render dozens of self-penned pieces in a rapidly-evolving style of lyrical and melodic beauty. The quality, maturity...
How to Answer the Great Commission: Prepare Your ‘Elevator Speech’
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28: 19-20)...
On Jerome Hines, the Opera Legend and a Powerful Voice for God
In the mid-1970s the health and fitness craze had begun. “Health club” chains sprang up around the country. In 1976, after being in and out of universities for a few years, I found myself working at one of these clubs in an affluent northern New Jersey...
“Disfigured” by David Berkowitz – formerly the ‘Son of Sam,’ now the ‘Son of Hope’
Our friend and brother in Christ, David Berkowitz, wrote the following Journal essay originally published on his Arise and Shine website. With his permission, we are reposting it here. Infamous as the "Son of Sam" murderer, David's sins titillate the fallen and so are...