I n most superhero movies, the screenwriters and producers make the villains as ugly and scary as possible. Many bad guys seem to look like death incarnate. Why do film companies make their villains so scary and obvious? Because fear ...
T hese are unprecedented times! Since March 2020, people around the world have been glued to developing current events. It began with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact upon the world and questions about the future. Then, the attention in ...
“I t just happened that I was in the right place when God chose to start it,” the Reverend A. V. Childers recalled in a 1978 interview about the founding of the Church of God Children’s Home in Concord, North ...
I t was late afternoon when I arrived at my destination—a quiet old cemetery on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I walked up a small hill to a stone pyramid about six feet high. Each of the four sides had ...
O ur world has changed in the past few months. Who would have ever believed thousands of congregations across the U.S. would be closed in a matter of days? Who would have believed school semesters would be suspended and major ...
I semi-reluctantly opened the front door of the building where I worked after having been on vacation. I had no idea I was about to receive a heartfelt reception. I had only stepped a couple feet inside when a particular ...
H ave you met the church police? These people think they can look at others (who are not in their little group) and discover their shortcomings, sins, and failures. Amazingly, they never seem to perceive any sin in their own ...
T he easiest way to kill a dragon is to smash it while it is still inside its egg. If you can kill it in its gestation period, you will never have to battle a monster—and you might enjoy some ...
“When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.” On December 21, 1966, I married Vince, a firefighter in the Air Force. I was 18; he was 21. Soon afterward, an unexplained sadness and a smoldering anger began ...
L OVE: Perhaps the most powerful word, in any language, in any culture, at any time. We’ve written poems, ballads, and secular and sacred music declaring its worth. If we as Christians allow love to be wrongly defined by pop ...
I n summer 2015, my wife and I were speaking at a youth camp when the Lord began to stir our hearts. We had been serving in co-vocational ministry for 12 years, but now Krista and I were sensing the ...
A t its heart, prayer is worship. At its edge, prayer is mission. In between, God meets our needs. Sadly, our needs are front and center in prayer. We fail to appreciate prayer as worship and see its centering capacity. ...
A FEW YEARS AGO, I found myself at a bit of a standstill with my life. I am a stay-at-home mom of two wonderful children, which I find to be a consuming job. All I had time for was being ...
W ITH A VISION for lost people, the Lord has placed my family and me in the “melting pot” of the world. With nearly 8.5 million residents, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, and ...
B OTH OF THE BOYS had enjoyed every minute of swimming, fishing, and building sandcastles; but, as every parent of elementary-age boys knows, the beach is a stressful place. If I had said, “That’s far enough!” once, I’d said it ...
1967: The year of Israel’s “Six-Day War,” the first Super Bowl, and the Apollo 1 disaster. Overshadowing everything was the continuing and escalating hostilities in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands died in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Death, destruction, ...
In today’s church world, the number of Christian couples seeking divorce is on the increase. By some reports, it is about the same as the secular average of 33 percent; or even as high as 38 percent. ...
“When the king heard what was written in the BOOK OF THE LAW, he tore his clothes in despair” (2 Kings 22:11 NLT). ...
What belief do Christians hold that aren't aligned with the Bible, just because someone told us they were right? ...