Many of us act as if repentance is a matter of the will. [But] we can't "will" ourselves into change. We can't "will" ourselves into feeling contrition or remorse. Repentance isn't doing something about our sin; rather it means admitting that we can't do anything about our sin. We cannot woo ourselves into anything but the most external form of repentance.

All our effort, striving, and willpower have ...

The first time I visited Rwanda, I went looking for monsters, albeit a different category of monster—the kind that isn't relegated to B movies. I had heard about the 1994 genocide that had left one million people dead—tortured, raped, viciously murdered—and somehow I thought it would be easy to spot the perpetrators. I naïvely assumed I would be able to look men and women in the ...

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of The Science of Good and Evil, writes:

I once had the opportunity to ask Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's List, what he thought was the difference between Oskar Schindler, rescuer of Jews and hero of his story, and Amon Goeth, the Nazi commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp. His answer was revealing. Not much, he said. Had there ...

Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats, then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.

—Fred Allen, U.S. comedian (1894–1956)

What is "essential" in the mind of the typical college freshman? An extensive survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute found that 85.8 percent say it is getting rich. That's a 43 percent increase over what the typical college freshman thought in 1967. As for developing a meaningful philosophy of life? Only 45 percent found it to be of any real worth. That's a 29 percent drop.

According ...

Why didn't any changes occur or any love or help come when I accepted you as Lord and Savior?

—Matthew Murray, in a letter addressed to God that was found in his car after he shot and killed two people at a Youth With a Mission training center and then was himself killed by a security guard at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in December 2007

Thank You For Smoking is about the shameless tactics of pro-cigarette lobbyists and their efforts to both protect and promote the tobacco industry.

Lobbyist Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) and his 12-year-old son Joey are having a conversation as they walk through a Santa Monica amusement park.

"So, you go to an office, then you go on TV to talk about cigarettes. Then you fly out to L.A. to talk to some ...

When I was about ten years old, my dad, a medical doctor, received a special gift from one of his patients: a beautiful globe with shiny sequins. The globe spun around on its base and played one of my dad's favorite songs. My dad proudly demonstrated how it worked: grab it by the base, slowly wind it counter-clockwise, and then release it, letting it spin clockwise while playing beautiful music. He ...

We serve a God who created our humanity, weeps at the fall of our humanity, became our humanity, and is redeeming our humanity.

—Author Glenn Stanton

Have you ever had high hopes for something and then seen those hopes crumble to pieces? It happened to one man in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His story hit the news wires as one of those sadly humorous, stupid-thief tales. Actually, if you knew him, his story is probably only very sad.

He wanted money. Maybe he desperately needed money. Perhaps he had a substance addiction or owed tens of thousands of ...