During the Great Blizzard of 1978, some friends and I played Hasbro's The Game of Life board game on repeat between tunneling the deep snowdrifts and late evening sledding. Reflecting on those formative days, one can glimpse how the gameplay echoed social norms from an extinct culture.

Have you ever felt like your prayers go unheard and unanswered? How can we be sure that God hears and wants to answer our prayers? As Jesus nears the end of the best sermon ever preached, he provides the key to a vitally engaging prayer life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s observation that "At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins." is a good reminder of how easy it is to lose integrity for the sake of pretense.

Worrying about money, job security, relationships, health, and the future is something we all wrestle with from time to time.

The religious people of Jesus' day probably started with good intentions. They wanted to please God, but their growing desire for earthly treasures slowly diluted their love for Him and their neighbors.

Around 481 BC, a young Jewish woman named Esther rose from relative obscurity to royalty, becoming Queen of Persia. An unlikely but providential pairing with conquering King Xerxes since the Jews lived in exile under Persian rule. Her response to the evil conspiracy to exterminate her people illustrates an inspiring faith that risked everything for justice.