In the slave cabins of the antebellum South, in the gulags of Russia, and in the house churches of China, believers have kept their priorities straight. Highly stressful situations are like that....
The governor of North Carolina once called Thomas Edison a great inventor. But Mr. Edison resisted the title. He said, “I am not a great inventor.” ...
Some people are by nature team players and others are not. I belong to the second group. I lack the skills of...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was involved in the German resistance movement against Hitler and the Nazis during World War II. In April 1943, Bonhoeffer was arrested....
On May 19, 1780—in the anxious days of the American Revolution—darkness fell at noon. Bats flew. Chickens roosted. The day abruptly lost all sunlight and many believed the world was ending.
I was fuming. A 30-minute task was well into an hour-and-a-half, and I still hadn’t worked through all the piles. ...
Staring out across the barren landscape stretching beyond the dashboard, I could almost see them—covered wagons carrying settlers in search of California gold. How had they ever made it? I...
Does it seem odd to you that one of the strongest freedom sentences in the New Testament also becomes one of the strongest obligation sentences? St. Paul put it this way: “Owe no...
“Compromise” is a dirty word to preachers like me. A word search of all the sermons on my laptop computer reveals that...
Holy, Holy, Holy . . . how do we understand such a vast word in the Bible as the word “holy”? It...
At the end of a recent business trip, I was exhausted. I decided to go on an earlier flight and had to take whatever seat was left. When I boarded and found my...
Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, was a successful leader. In 31 B.C., he led the army that defeated Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium.
I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched...
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During the last half of the twentieth century, one of the cursed human tragedies was the unjust apartheid system in South Africa. The black majority and its leaders, Nelson Mandela and Desmond...
When I entered the conference room, one of my colleagues, Johnny, was already there. Johnny was looking at some materials belonging to another coworker, Bruce, who happened to be momentarily absent...
“Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, ...
In the mid-‘50s, when I was a Boy Scout, the Scout motto was "be prepared." I never quite knew what I was to be prepared for, but recalling the hours spent discussing water...
For much of my life, I thought saints and mystics were the only people really concerned about spiritual matters. I thought their monastic life was necessary for the in-flooding of God’s Spirit. As...
