The Heart Of The Church
What makes a church successful? A big turnout on Sunday morning? A multimillion-dollar budget? A state-of-the-art building?
International Friendship
In 1947, Nadia from Bulgaria and Millicent from the United States became pen pals. For years they swapped photos, school experiences, and dreams. Then their letters stopped when government policy banned personal contact with the West.
Heart For Others
As the young people set up for a concert in the town square in Montego Bay, Jamaica, the worst problem we anticipated was sunburn.
A Family Thing
When I was growing up, I often heard my pastor read the Ten Commandments and our Lord’s command to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves. I knew I didn’t fully live up to those demands, but I took them seriously.
There Is Love
Some time ago, I traded e-mail with a friend who was approaching 30 and had no serious love relationship in sight. He’s talented, fun, handsome, and a committed Christian. But so far, everything on his romantic horizon has turned out to be a mirage.
Valuing Others
As a young person, Robert had many things working against him—poverty, a broken home, a violent neighborhood. He skipped school often and was difficult to handle. But when a friend was shot to death, he considered it a wake-up call. Determined to change his life, Robert worked hard to bring his grades from failing to top marks.
Let Freedom Ring
In 1963, during a peaceful march on Washington, DC, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech. He eloquently called for freedom to ring from every mountaintop across the nation. The cost to him personally and to those who joined his peaceful resistance movement was steep, but real change soon began. God used that speech to awaken the conscience of the US to fight for the freedom of the oppressed and downtrodden.
Who Am I?
The song "Who Am I?" by Mark Hall of the musical group Casting Crowns, begins: "Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt?"
God Put You In My Way
In the movie The Four Feathers, Harry Faversham left England in the 1880s to search for his friends in the King's army in the Sudan. In his quest, Harry got lost and was near death in the vast deserts of Africa. Then, as his life was ebbing away, he was rescued by an African, Abou Fatma, who cared for him.
