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Moses learned key lessons from his life as a stepson in Pharaoh’s palace, as an exile with a price on his head, as the deliverer of his people from slavery in Egypt and as spokesperson for God in a forty-year wilderness wandering. But the single truth that was his strength is expressed in his last words to a people who would experience the Promised Land.

Our story begins with Judah, the southern kingdom of the Jews, where the fabled city of David and Solomon was located, along with the temple of the true and living God, in Jerusalem. But the glory days are long gone, faith in God has been reduced to public rituals and the land is blighted with altars to pagan gods.

About one-quarter of Americans report they did not read or listen to a book in the previous year. I suspect that many simply cannot find the time.

If this describes you, here are some ideas for success.

History teaches a timeless truth: When faith is co-opted by a government or politicians the result is not only social injustice, but a rise in class and ethnic divisions.

For all its exotic stories, strange cultures and colorful characters, the Old Testament is remarkably relevant to our modern world. No matter how odd the story may seem, we can learn valuable lessons about life because God is God and we are humans who are incomplete without God's love and grace.

I fell in love with literature when I was a boy, immersing myself in the tragedies and heroics of characters that sometimes confused, disappointed and amazed me. When I followed Jesus a new literature captured my attention, at first because it was introduced as my Christian operations manual. But very quickly I discovered the stories of real people who are like me, struggling to maintain spiritual balance, imperfect and sometimes foolish beyond belief.

There is something in human DNA that wants an answer to the ultimate question of life: “Why?” We are industrious about coming up with answers, as is evidenced by the existence of so many religions in our world, countless lectures on university campuses, never-silent talking heads on television, debates by political leaders and insistent philosophers and preachers. We want something solid, a clear pathway to the desired end, a deity that provides THE ANSWER when we connect the dots.

Paul was certainly an educated scholar and a strong personality, but he also knew about disappointment and danger. Paul knew what it meant to be thrown into jail, threatened by religious and government authorities, run out of town, shipwrecked and on trial for his life.

(RNS) — A group of Christian college students has released a survey that suggests censorship of student publications is not uncommon at American Christian schools, with student editors alleging faculty and administrators wield broad editorial control over campus newspapers and sometimes kill stories before publication.

You can learn a lot from traveling to other countries. Take Sweden. The folks there would really like for you to visit.

And perhaps the Swedish Tourism Association can teach us a thing or two about doing church.