It has been said that many cynics were once great optimists. They were once full of hope and optimism, but after too many disappointments, or perhaps one large disappointment, all that hope and optimism was drained and was replaced by pessimism and cynicism. I think Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, may have been such a person.

Should a Christian play video games? Is it benign entertainment? Is it somehow sinful? Does it stunt spiritual growth? Does it help spiritual growth?

It has been my experience that most of the Christian life takes place in the wilderness, not the Promised Land. That is, it is much more common to be struggling (spiritually) in one form or another or to one degree or another than it is to be sitting back and relaxing. One of the reasons for this is that spiritual growth requires work and effort, which means there will likely be a lot of struggling and failing. Another, and often overlooked reason I think, is injustice. Times when God does not do what he has promised to do.

“The teachers that were hard, the ones that made things difficult and forced you to learn and improve, those are the ones that you will remember. Not the easy ones who tried to make things as easy as possible so that you felt good about yourself.”

Was there a day when the earth stopped spinning and the sun stood still? That seems to be what a certain passage in Joshua is saying, but is that really what is being described? Or does it mean something else?