Hopefully there is no need to tell you, but wild stories circulate on the internet—on web pages and via email. My web site of the week is Snopes.com, which is devoted to uncovering the truthfulness or falsehood of these “urban legends”. What would make one suspect that a story received in one of those emails from a well-meaning friend might be, well, not quite true? These stories often have vague details (A missionary in Africa, a little girl in Alabama, an executive with a major oil company, etc.) and no references to credible sites. It is always best to do some investigation before accepting or forwarding stories that are questionable; this is especially important for us as Christians.

One of my favorite stories that turns out to be true is the one about the balloon man, who tied weather balloons to his lawn chair and quickly rose to 16,000 feet!

A story that is false that is widely circulated in the Christian world is “NASA Confirms That Sun Stood Still.” I’ve received this story by email a number of times, such as from a student who wrote, “Mr. Nelstead, look at this wonderful confirmation of the Bible!” I believe the Bible, but stories like this one do more damage than good.

Grace and Peace