In the first episode of the twentieth season of The Simpsons, Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:1-17) finally makes prime time. Ned Flanders, the Simpsons’ good-hearted evangelical-ish neighbor, tries to redeem the time by reciting the New Testament while he and Homer stand stuck in concrete. As Ned launches into the genealogy on the opening page of the New Testament, viewers are expected to cringe at the prospect of a lengthy genealogical recitation. Many contemporary Ch

Many Christian parents have prayed for their children to meet and marry another Christian – preferably a faith-filled, sold-out follower of Jesus. But when noted author and preacher Francis Chan was impressed by a young man involved with his ministry, he lifted up a bold, audacious matchmaking prayer and God answered in a way that confounded Francis himself. “Earlier this year in February I prayed and I asked God for something that was just ridiculous,” Francis Chan told a gr