Sometimes, I think we have this expectation that spirituality should be instant, like putting something into a microwave. We press a button and out comes a steaming hot cup of tea in just a few seconds. We want everything to work that quickly. The Christian life simply is not like that. Think about it. Take prayer for example. How do we learn to pray? We can read books like Power through Prayer by E.M. Bounds and God’s Chosen Fast by... Read more
Before he died from cancer at age 41, our youngest son Jeremy taught us a lot about the world and its people. When only 15 he spent a summer living in Japan. As a young man he made frequent trips to Mexico, which is where he quickly picked up and mastered Spanish. After college, he taught four years in China, where he also learned Mandarin. Returning to the States, he taught Spanish at Wheaton College while also setting up a... Read more
Due to acute poverty in the rural villages, abandoning children is a choice that some parents are almost forced to make. Read more
Lack of humility is the proof of counterfeit spirituality. Read more
God’s desire to conform us to the very image of His own Son sounds like a good plan to us and a worthwhile pursuit. We immediately think of all the wonderful things Jesus did while He was on earth, and we feel privileged that God wants to use our lives in a similar way. Some of the things we admire the most in Jesus include His love for even the worst sinner, His faith to move mountains, His authority over... Read more
It is plain throughout the Bible that God doesn’t want us to ignore the poor, the defenseless, the hungry or the hurting. Look at Acts 10, where we read the story of a Gentile named Cornelius, a devout man who feared God. Two additional things are written about him. He prayed continually and gave alms generously to the people. The inward heart of Cornelius, the devout, God-fearing part, was displayed outwardly in his generosity. God sent His great apostle Peter... Read more
Imagine with me that someone bought a whole bunch of bright red, crisp apples and tied them onto an apple tree. Everyone who casually walked by the tree would think, Wow, that tree looks great. See all of those apples? Unless of course they studied it carefully, they wouldn’t notice that the apples were just tied onto the branches. If you let some time go by though, anyone would be able to notice that the now-rotting and sour apples were... Read more
After the second World War, much of Europe was absolutely devastated. Many buildings were burned down and people were starving. One early morning, an American soldier saw a little boy with his face pressed against a window. Curious about what the boy was doing, one of the soldiers slowly and softly walked behind him and saw he was looking into a bakery. The soldier, looking at this boy, realized he must have lost his parents and everything else, just like... Read more
Philippians 2:5–9 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has... Read more
November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It’s heartbreaking to consider the unthinkable struggles so many women go through, many of them unseen by anyone else in the world. I remember a time a few years ago when there was a sobering stream of reports that really brought this issue to light. There was one rape and gang rape being reported after another with some of the girls being quite young. It was heart-wrenching... Read more
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