During one memorable at-bat the spring of my son's first baseball season, he repeatedly hit the tee instead of the ball. And it was obvious what the problem was. He wasn't keeping his eye on the ball; he was looking right at me instead. He was unable to get a base hit until finally I stepped out of sight.

We joked about that the rest of the season, but what the incident shows is the power of fatherly ...

As our Bible study group began focusing on the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, I felt pretty smug. After all, I didn't worship more than one God, steal, commit adultery or murder, lie about my neighbors, or plot to cheat them out of what was rightfully theirs. But one evening we came to the command to honor our father and mother (v. 12). Against my will, I thought of my mother, who'd passed away ten ...

In 2008, Guy Spier, CEO of Aquamarine Capital Management, had what will probably be the most expensive lunch of his life. He took Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world, to lunch, and it cost Spier and a friend $650,100. Still, when it was over, Spier felt the lunch was a bargain.

The luncheon came about through a charity auction on eBay. Annually since 2000, investment genius Warren Buffett ...

In an article for the Gospel Coalition, pastor and author Tim Keller offers this potent definition of sin: "Sin isn't only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry."

In his bestseller ...

On April 26, 2008, the Western Oregon women's softball team played against Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. During the course of the game, Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky hit the first homerun of her college career. She dropped her bat and started to make her way around the bases. In the midst of all the excitement, she forgot to tag first base. When the first base coach ...

I remember being approached by a 16-year-old boy named Ricky after I wrapped up my first speaking session at a weekend retreat for high schoolers. "I just hope you're not heading down a path where at the end of the weekend you're going to ask us to make some kind of commitment to follow God with our whole lives," he said. "'Cause if you are, I want to go home right now."

Without pausing for breath, ...

Miss Potter tells the story of Beatrix Potter, the beloved children's author who wrote The Tales of Peter Rabbit. In this scene, Miss Potter receives a statement of encouragement and support from her father that proves more valuable than all of the books she would go on to sell.

The scene begins with Beatrix's mother calling her to greet her father, who has just returned from a social club. The two ...

The movie The Second Chance follows the intersection of two very different pastors. Ethan Jenkins (Michael W. Smith) is white, wealthy, and comfortable in his music ministry at a suburban mega-church called The Rock. Jake Sanders is a street-smart African American who ministers to gang members, teen mothers, and drug addicts at his church, The Second Chance.

When they are suddenly thrown together in ...

Writing in U.S. News & World Report, John Leo had this to say in defense of voting based upon religious values:

I am struggling to understand the "don't impose your values" argument. According to this popular belief, it is wrong, and perhaps dangerous, to vote your moral convictions unless everybody else already shares them. Of course if everybody already shared them, no imposition would be necessary. ...

The film Gladiator tells the story of Maximus (Russell Crowe), general of the Roman army in 180 A.D. Following victory in a decisive battle, the dying emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) expresses his desire to appoint Maximus as his successor. Marcus Aurelius's own son Commodus is the amoral opposite of Maximus. When Commodus learns that he will not be the next emperor, he recoils from his father. ...