This has been an active year for the Middle East peace process. Beginning with the Oslo Accord in the early 90s, the Middle East may not have achieved a permanent peace, but it did enjoy a stable condition of "no war." Prior to this, there had been decades of strife, riots and terrorist activities.

It has been popular to presume that the "fig tree" is a reference to Israel. That view was further popularized by Hal Lindsey's best seller, The Late Great Planet Earth, and Ed Weisenant's 88 Reasons that Jesus would return in 1988. The idea was that since Israel was restored to statehood on May 14, 1948, and that a generation can be defended as 40 years, that 1988 was the year to watch.

As this issue goes to press, the entire world is wondering what is going to happen to Jerusalem. About 2,500 years ago, the prophet Zechariah recorded God's predictions regarding this troubled city:

Prayer - powerful, effective prayer - what is it? What kind of prayer pleases God? The disciples said to Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray...." (Luke 11:1) Most who are reading this message would love to be faithful in prayer - but don't know how. The problem is, we don't understand the purpose of prayer.

Many of us fail to really appreciate the remarkable - yet often misunderstood - epistle written by Jacob to the descendants of Israel. (Jacob means the supplanter; heel-catcher; tripper-up. It is Ya'kov in Hebrew, translated Jacobos in Greek, Jacques in French, Iago in Italian, Diego in Spanish, and James in English.)

No matter what is occurring in our lives, keeping our eyes and our focus upon Jesus Christ is essential. He is not only our Savior, our Lord, and our King, He is also our role model and our example. He showed us how to live the Christian life perfectly.

This July marked the 75th anniversary of what was perhaps the most famous court case of the 20th century: the 1925 Scopes "monkey trial." John Scopes, a schoolteacher from Dayton, Tennessee, was charged with violating the Butler Act, which forbade teaching that man had descended from lower life forms.

The Prophet Ezekiel was called upon to undertake a number of strange performances, one of which was to lie on his side for a total of 430 days. Each day was expressly to represent a year of judgment against the nation.

Since the ten Hebrew names are proper names, they are not translated but only transliterated to approximate the way they were pronounced. The meaning of proper names can be a difficult pursuit since direct translations are not readily available. Many study aids, such as conventional lexicons, can prove superficial when dealing with proper names

Of the 27 books in the New Testament, over half were written by one man: Paul. But for the letters of Paul, we would be in darkness concerning the truth of the Church as the Body of Christ and its function, activity, and destiny. (17 of 28 chapters in Acts deal with Paul; from Acts 15 onwards, the other apostles are not even mentioned.)

The so-called "Gap Theory" is a conjecture about a possible interval between the first two verses in Genesis 1. Among other things, it attempts to deal with the creation of the angels, the fall of Lucifer, and related topics. The angels apparently witnessed the creation of the earth; but when were they created? Satan's rebellion is also portrayed in Scripture; but when did he fall?

There have been few dramas that can equal the cosmic warfare that took place against the gods of Egypt when God used Moses to free Israel from their bondage.

Over the last decade, the United Nations has unabashedly been reinventing itself into a global government, striving to obtain the legal teeth and financial resources to implement its policies. Government reinvention is frequently an effort to avoid the consequences of failed policies in the past, or to justify a government's continued expansion by posing solutions to the problems it has created.

Some scientists now claim they have broken the ultimate speed barrier: the speed of light.

It's Memorial Day weekend and I'm sitting in Mom's hospital room, watching her sleep. Life has become so very precious to our family over the last couple of years as we have seen so many of our loved ones make the transition "home."

The past several months have witnessed the emotional media controversy surrounding the fate of six-year-old Cuban refugee Elin Gonzlez in Miami. A debate raged - even among conservatives and Christians - as to whether or not Elin should be sent back to live under a communist dictatorship or be allowed to stay with relatives in the U.S.

Last month we explored the origin of the Sabbath Day and its observance in the Old Testament and the period of the Gospels. As Christians, however, we venerate the first day of the week in honor of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and tend to regard that as equivalent - in some respects, at least - to "remembering the Sabbath Day to keep it holy."

This smallest book of the New Testament is also, in many ways, the most provocative.

Faith is the key that opens the door to our spiritual victory and enables us to walk triumphantly with Jesus. Only true faith can overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. (1 John 5:4) To "overcome" means to be able to conquer our sin, our self, our circumstances and our trials through the power of faith.

Jesus warned us, "Take heed that no man deceive you." And we do, indeed, live in the Age of Deceit. Our entire society is totally driven by many myths, none more basic or insidious than the convictions of Evolution, the religion of our age.