A power outage, however brief, causes a lot of consternation. Lights go out, computers are down, refrigeration ceases and life as we know it with all our modern conveniences grinds to a halt. This happened in our city recently during a busy lunchtime, disrupting the schedules of thousands of people who were having their noon break. Restaurants and other enterprises lost business and customers went hungry. Happily, the power outage lasted only a short time, but long enough to remind everyone how dependent we are upon the power grid that supplies our communities.

June 1 marked an historic event between close trade partners—Japan and China. Japan is China’s largest trade partner and the two nations are growing closer together.  On June 1 the two began trading directly in their own currencies instead of in U.S. dollars.  This direct currency exchange will bolster their relationship and could be used by China to press for the eventual replacement of the dollar with the yuan as the world’s reserve currency (Agence France-Presse, May 29, 2012).

The last notes of the “Big Band” music hung in the air, and—as hundreds of us gazed upward expectantly—a slender column of flame arched high into the evening sky. Our small English town’s shining beacon was just one of 4,200 similar beacons that were lit around the world at 10:00 p.m. on June 4, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently voted overwhelmingly to urge the U.S. Navy to name a vessel the “USS Harvey Milk.”  Harvey Milk was one of the first openly homosexual politicians in the U.S. and served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.  In order to determine if the idea was a good one, the Board consulted the spirits.

In a world where barely one in four people can name all four of the New Testament books known as the “Gospels,” is it any surprise that most people do not understand the true Gospel that Jesus Christ and the Apostles proclaimed? Many accept shallow and false promises contrary to Christ’s message, while some even uphold distorted teachings that in fact deny Christ Himself! So, what is the true Gospel?