Superman, without a doubt, is our best-known superhero, but here are some things you might not know about the Man of Steel. Superman had a thing for women with the initials L.L.  Of course, there was Lois Lane, but in high school, Clark’s heart belonged to Lana Lane. In university, Clark had his eyes on Lori Lemaris. And once, when visiting Krypton (via time-travel), he met Lyla Lerrol. The Supe just loves those LL’s!   Long before Lex Luther became Superman’s archnemesis, they were good friends. In fact, Lex was working on a potion to help Superman resist kryptonite. Unfortunately, there was an accident, and Lex’s lab became engulfed in flames. Superman blew it out, but there was severe collateral damage. Lex’s beautiful hair was burned off, leaving him forever bald. And that’s how archenemies are formed!   While we all know kryptonite is Superman’s true nemesis, it was not part of

Everyone has a favorite city. And cities often have favorite fun facts. For instance, here’s my favorite fun fact about the city of Seattle. It not only has the highest percentage of residents with at least a college degree, but it also has more households with pets than households with children. Fun fact: The city of Paris has no stop signs. If you come to an intersection without a traffic light, you’d better look before you leap! Fun fact: The city of Berlin has roughly 170 museums. But that is not as impressive as it sounds. At least one of those museums is for curried sausage; and if one can be profaned, they all can. Fun Fact: Based on population, the third smallest city in England is the city of London. Now, that is weird, but technically, the city of London only constitutes the financial district; and while over 500,000

There are a lot of verses in the Bible that are just plain weird.  I offer these up for your consideration.  Ezekiel 16:45 – “Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.” (That’s a weird insult!) 2 Kings 6:28 -- “Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.” (That’s just weird; and as plans go, it is awful!) 1 Chronicles 26:18 – “As for the Parbar on the west, there were four on the highway and two at the Parbar.” (It’s weird, but it was my favorite verse in college.) Ezekiel 4:15 -- “Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.” (Weird, weird and weird.) 1 Timothy 2:15 – “But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.” (That may be the weirdest of the group!) See what I mean? They are all weird,

Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, Europeans feared the tomato because they believed the tomato was a deadly killer.  Now, this would make perfectly good sense if they had seen the 1978 movie, “The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” because there, tomatoes WERE deadly killers (that one line in the theme song said it all: “I’m really going to miss her, a tomato ate my sister.”).  However, most people today dismiss the impact of this movie on our European friends since the movie came out 200-plus years after this panic and because it was a really bad movie. Nevertheless, in 1700’s, the tomato was believed to be extremely poisonous and responsible for numerous deaths. You may scoff at this idea, but the evidence was pretty overwhelming. Many aristocrats, after eating a side dish of tomatoes, became very sick and many died. After eliminating all other possible suspects, the authorities

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of The Lone Ranger. It was my favorite show on TV, and I could not wait for the next episode (but back then you had to – not only was there no “On Demand,” but there were also only three channels!). The Lone Ranger had everything–a mysterious masked man, the fast gun, his great friend, Tonto, and a mighty “Hi-oh, Silver Away,” (but I’m still confused -- was it “Hi-oh, Silver,” “Hi-yo, Silver” or “Hi-ho, Silver?). Plus, it had the William Tell Overture as its theme music! But my very favorite part of the show was at the end when whoever was rescued in that particular episode, cries out, “Who was that masked man?” Great memories. By the way, I just rewatched the first episode on Youtube. My memories are faulty. It was really awful. Really, really awful.   But as

Today, we begin a new series which will look at Sandra Glahn’s exceptional book, Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament (Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2023). When it comes to important background information of the New Testament, it seems to me that Artemis is near the top of the list, perhaps right behind the importance of the Old Testament. Now, I know what you are thinking: Isn’t this incredibly similar to our current sermon series? Isn’t this whole post repetitive, redundant and unwarranted? Let me answer that with several quotes from Winston Churchill. Churchill said:  “Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.” “If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time—a tremendous whack.” “Never hold