“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket,…

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and…

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he…

Since my wife Laurie isn’t here today, I can let you in on a little known secret:  Every morning when she wakes up, she opens my eyelids and stares at me intently and utters “Good morning!  It is not about you today.”  The first few times I found it startling and didn’t know what she meant, but after nearly 20 years, I…

Happy New Year!  It was 75 degrees in sunny during our week-long trip to San Diego to visit my family.  We had a great visit with my dad, sisters, brother, and my nieces and nephews.  My father, who is getting up there in years, clings to this New Year’s prayer:  God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked…

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt…

In 1921 Lewis Lawes became the warden at New York’s infamous Sing Sing Penitentiary. No prison in the country was tougher with more incidents of violence recorded during the period, but when Warden Lawes retired some twenty years later, Sing Sing had become a humanitarian institution. Those who studied prison reform in the period gave the credit for the institution’s turn around…