Dennis Rainey, director of Family Life Today, a ministry to families, explained two decades ago “…that of the top ten personal needs for which respondents said they want help from the church, six involve marriage and family issues.”[i] What does this mean for us? It means that many relationships are in a state of crisis, …
DISCOVER HOW TO QUENCH THE THIRST IN OUR LIVES
Survival experts talk about the rule of three. You can live without air for about 3 minutes, without water for 3 days, and without food for about three weeks. Obviously, there are exceptions, but that is generally the limits for human existence. It is interesting that Jesus describes a relationship with God in terms that …
THE ROAD TO GOD’S DREAM
The year was 1963, the centennial of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. It was truly a momentous year in American history and the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Before the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, he gave the keynote address at the end of the March on Washington, D.C., for Civil Rights. …
IT IS ALL ABOUT TRUST!
Life is far more about faith than most people realize. The moment we get into our vehicles, we trust that they will work and not have something happen that will cause problems for us. Once on the road, we trust that people will stay on their side of the road. We step on an elevator, …
STANDING WHEN EVERYTHING IS SHAKING
STANDING WHEN EVERYTHING IS SHAKING What often trips us up in life’s most challenging moments is not the problems but a wrong perspective of the situation and our own inability to handle things. If anyone understood this as a close follower of Jesus, it was Peter. In his second letter, Peter is conveying something that …
ALL WE NEED IS LOVE
David Helm shares a story when he was a middle school student living in Illinois, just after the Vietnam war. His father taught at Judson College and his father’s office overlooked the Fox River. It was there that David watched as one young man would care for the ducks during the cold winter months. He …
WHO IS MY FRIEND?
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings,’ we find an analogy of the Christian pilgrimage with all of the challenges that evil brings against the Christian community and relationships, described in his second volume: ‘Fellowship of the Ring.’ It is the weakest members of Tolkien’s fantasy world of middle earth, the Hobbits, who in relationship …
RETURNING TO LOVE
Years ago, I read about a pastor who was called to a troubled church. To accept the invitation would mean a significant salary cut. But he said yes anyway. He needed further income, so he began looking for a part-time job. The state mental institution was in his new community, so he approached the directors …
WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU DANCING TOO?
Will Durant once wrote: “From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.” It’s easier to destroy than to build a meaningful life. The drama of history is played out along the frontiers of great belief systems as they ebb and flow. …The conflict of our day is theism …
A Sincere Faith
John Gresham Machen was born on July 28, 1881, in Baltimore, Maryland, the second of three sons born to Arthur and Mary [known as Minnie]. …His parents were committed Christians. Minnie, with whom Gresham always had a special bond, had an especially significant influence on the boy’s upbringing. It was on her knee that he …