Dr Paul Allen

The Christmas story clearly shows that the hope of the universe is a person. Hope was what the angels sang about. Hope lay in the manger. Hope caused Mary to wonder in her heart. It was hope the shepherds came to worship. Hope was presented with gifts from the Magi who had travelled so far. The Advent story is a hope story because it chronicles the coming to earth of the One who is hope, Jesus. For a people born in sin and for a world damaged by sin, there simply could not be any other source of hope. Good education would not solve the problem. The benevolent government had no power to solve the problem. More and better laws could not penetrate to the source of the problem. People couldn’t help one another and surely couldn’t help themselves. You see, the inescapable condition of sin infects every single human being and has scarred every aspect of the cosmos, which cried out for one thing and one thing alone: divine intervention. The only solution was a Savior, and the only suitable S...

The day  The Shack  sold its hundred thousandth copy, it became likely there would be a movie adaption. The day it sold its millionth, it became practically guaranteed. And, sure enough, it comes to theaters, starring Sam Worthington , Octavia Spencer , and Tim McGraw . I am sure that watching and reviewing  The Shack  would be an unwise and even sinful spiritual decision. For that reasonI will not be seeing or reviewing  The Shack . Let me explain why. The Shack in Brief I trust you are familiar with  The Shack , the book that came from nowhere to sell more than twenty million copies. It is the story of Mack, a man who has suffered a terrible tragedy and whose faith has been left in tatters. But then he receives an unexpected invitation to return to the scene where that tragedy unfolded.  In a little shack, he encounters Father, Son, and Holy Spirit , each in human form—Papa, an African-American woman, Son, a middle-aged Middle-Eastern ...

“Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee” (Gen. 31:20). Having his wives’ full consent in his decision to flee Paddan-aram, Jacob and his entourage begin their return to Canaan in today’s passage. Concern for his clan’s safety factors into this move, but Jacob’s growing desire to trust God and return to the Promised Land cannot be ignored. Genesis 31:21 says he “set his face” toward Gilead, a region east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River where the Israelite tribes Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh later settled. Jacob is taking his family and making a beeline for his God-given country. This caravan makes its move while Laban is shearing the sheep (v. 19), which is a wise decision. Shepherds were busy during the sheep-shearing season and worked from sunrise to sunset gathering wool from their flocks. Jacob was therefore able to get a lead of several days on his father-in-law. Moses tells us Jacob “tricked” Laban (v. 20), a term that literally means “...