Samaritans were looked down upon in the time of Jesus, thus giving Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan much more impact with his listeners. That a Samaritan could be considered more righteous, more neighbourly, than a teacher of the law was just unthinkable. The history between Samaria and Israel dates to about 1000 years before Christ. And let me preface… Read More

My dog is sick. He caught a tic-related illness called la piroplasmose in French, and it attacks the red and white blood cells, the liver, and the kidneys. It’s pretty serious, but we brought him in as soon as he started showing symptoms. He had been vaccinated against it, and I put the tic repellant faithfully every month. And yet… Read More

I don’t know about you, but the last adjective I would have used to describe Jesus was “optimistic.” Nor would I have used its distant cousin – “joyful.” I mean, the shortest verse to appear in the Bible is “He wept.” It’s not “He laughed.” And then there’s this description of him in Isaiah 53: 2b-3 He had no beauty… Read More