In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus first speaks of “anyone who hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (v.19) When there is no understanding, the Word does not take root.

Switzerland is a country that has managed to remain remarkably stable – the Swiss Franc is a byword for stability. It follows a formal policy of neutrality, established in 1815, and it has not been in a state of international conflict since that time.

When income tax was first introduced here in Canada in 1917, the new Income Tax Act ran just shy of 4000 words. It was a simple document outlining a simple law. Since then, the rules and regulations have ballooned to just over 1 million words.

One of the challenges that first responders like paramedics or firefighters face when they arrive on the scene of an accident is to assess quickly what is the injury—the greatest hazard—that poses risk to human life.

It’s easy to be hypocritical, and we’re all guilty of it sometimes. A little while ago, Florida’s Sun Sentinel examined the records of 3,915 officers who had traveled on toll roads in 2011. The paper found that nearly 800 of them had driven at speeds of 90 to 130 miles an hour, many either while off duty or in violation of department rules.