As I was grading another stack of papers for a college writing class I teach I was impressed with one particular paper It was so well-written Soon though I realized it was too well-written Sure enough a little research revealed that the paper had been plagiarized from an online source I sent the student an email to let her know that her ruse had been discovered She was getting a zero on this paper but she could write a new paper for partial credit Her response ldquo I am humiliated and very sorry I appreciate the grace you are showing [... more]

I rsquo m not sure who rsquo s responsible for turning out the lights and locking up the church after our Sunday morning service but I know one thing about that person Sunday dinner is going to be delayed That rsquo s because so many people love to hang around after church and talk about life decisions heart issues and struggles and more It rsquo s a joy to look around twenty minutes after the service and see so many people still enjoying each other rsquo s company Fellowship is a key component of the Christlike life Without the connectivity [... more]

While on vacation my wife and I enjoyed some early morning bike rides One route took us through a neighborhood of multi-million-dollar homes We saw a variety of people mdash residents walking their dogs fellow bike riders and numerous workers building new homes or tending well-kept landscapes It was a mixture of people from all walks of life and I was reminded of a valuable reality There was no true distinction among us Rich or poor Wealthy or working-class Known or unknown All of us on that street that morning were the same ldquo Rich and poor have this in [... more]

The recently widowed woman was growing concerned To collect some vital funds from an insurance policy she needed key information about the accident that had taken her husband rsquo s life She had talked to a police officer who said he rsquo d help her but then she lost his business card So she prayed pleading with God for help A short time later she was at her church when she walked by a window and saw a card mdash the policeman rsquo s card mdash on a windowsill She had no idea how it got there but she knew [... more]

It was a natural step for Brett to attend a Christian college and study the Bible After all he rsquo d been around people who knew Jesus his whole life mdash at home at school at church He was even gearing his college studies toward a career in ldquo Christian work rdquo But at age twenty-one as he sat with the small congregation in an old country church and listened to a pastor preach from John he made a startling discovery He realized that he was depending on knowledge and the trappings of religion and that he had never truly [... more]

Nothing could pull Aakash out of his dark depression Severely injured in a truck accident he was taken to a missionary hospital in Southwest Asia Eight operations repaired his broken bones but he couldn rsquo t eat Depression set in His family depended on him to provide which he couldn t do so his world grew darker One day a visitor read to Aakash from the gospel of John in his language and prayed for him Touched by the hope of God rsquo s free gift of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus he placed his faith in Him His depression [... more]

In a multination effort led to the launch of the James nbsp Webb Space Telescope mdash deployed nearly a million miles from Earth to better investigate the universe This marvel will peer into deep space and examine the stars and other celestial wonders This is indeed a fascinating astronomical piece of technology and if everything works it will provide us with amazing photos and information But its mission isn rsquo t new In fact the prophet Isaiah described searching the stars when he said ldquo Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens Who created all these He who [... more]

As I was helping my sixth-grade grandson Logan with some tough algebra-type homework he told me of his dream of becoming an engineer After we returned to figuring out what to do with the x rsquo s and y rsquo s in his assignment he said ldquo When am I ever going to use this stuff rdquo I couldn rsquo t help but smile saying ldquo Well Logan this is exactly the stuff you rsquo ll use if you become an engineer rdquo He hadn rsquo t realized the connection between algebra and his hoped-for future Sometimes we view Scripture [... more]

On July Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out of their lunar landing module and became the first humans to walk on the surface of the moon But we don rsquo t often think about the third person on their team Michael Collins who was flying the command module for Apollo After his teammates clambered down the ladder to test the lunar surface Collins waited alone on the far side of the moon He was out of touch with Neil Buzz and everyone on earth NASA rsquo s mission control commented ldquo Not since Adam has any human known such [... more]

I met him in the s when I was a high school English teacher and basketball coach and he was a tall gangly freshman Soon he was on my basketball team and in my classes mdash and a friendship was formed This same friend who had served with me as a fellow editor for many years stood before me at my retirement party and shared about the legacy of our longstanding friendship What is it about friends connected by the love of God that encourages us and brings us closer to Jesus The writer of Proverbs understood that friendship has [... more]

I rsquo m not a coffee drinker but one sniff of coffee beans brings me a moment of both solace and wistfulness When our teenage daughter Melissa was making her bedroom uniquely hers she filled a bowl with coffee beans to permeate her room with a warm pleasant scent It rsquo s been nearly two decades since Melissa rsquo s earthly life ended in a car accident at age seventeen but we still have that coffee-bean bowl It gives us a continual aromatic remembrance of Mell rsquo s life with us Scripture also uses fragrances as a reminder Song of [... more]

Twice this summer I suffered the scourge of poison ivy Both times it happened I was working on clearing away unwanted plant growth from our yard And both times I saw the nasty three-leafed enemy lurking nearby I figured I could get close to it without it affecting me Soon enough I realized I rsquo d been wrong Instead of getting nearer to my little green nemesis I should have run the other way In the Old Testament story of Joseph we see modeled the principle of running from something worse than poison ivy sin When he was living in [... more]

The deer in our neighborhood and I have two different opinions about sunflowers When I plant sunflowers each spring I rsquo m looking forward to the beauty of their blooms My deer friends however don rsquo t care about the finished product They simply want to chew the stems and leaves until there rsquo s nothing left It rsquo s an annual summertime battle as I try to see the sunflowers to maturity before my four-hoofed neighbors devour them Sometimes I win sometimes they win When we think about our lives as believers in Jesus it rsquo s easy to [... more]

Tragedy struck near Los Angeles in January when nine people died in a helicopter crash Most news stories began something like this ldquo NBA superstar Kobe Bryant his daughter Gianna ldquo Gigi rdquo and seven others lost their lives in the accident rdquo It rsquo s natural and understandable to focus on the well-known people involved in a horrible situation like this mdash and the deaths of Kobe and his precious teenager Gigi are heartbreaking beyond description But we must keep in mind that in life rsquo s big picture there rsquo s no dividing line that makes the ldquo [... more]

What began as a simple spring nature walk turned into something special as my wife and I trekked along our hometown rsquo s Grand River We noticed some familiar ldquo friends rdquo on a log in the rippling water mdash five or six large turtles basking in the sun Sue and I smiled at the amazing sight of these reptiles which we hadn rsquo t seen for many months We were delighted that they were back and we celebrated a moment of joy in God rsquo s magnificent creation God took Job on quite a nature walk see Job The [... more]

When a pickpocketer tried to pilfer my property while I was on vacation in another country it wasn rsquo t a surprise I rsquo d read warnings about the danger of subway thieves so I knew what to do to protect my wallet But I never expected it to happen Fortunately the young man who grabbed my wallet had slippery fingers so it fell to the floor where I could retrieve it But the incident reminded me that I should have heeded the warnings We don rsquo t like to dwell on warnings because we think they rsquo ll get [... more]

The caller to the Christian radio station said that his wife was coming home from the hospital following surgery Then he shared something that spoke deeply to my heart ldquo Everyone in our church family has been so helpful in taking care of us during this time rdquo When I heard this simple statement it reminded me of the value and necessity of Christian hospitality and care I began to think that the love and support of fellow believers for one another is one of the greatest ways to demonstrate the life-changing power of the gospel In Peter the apostle [... more]

A family rsquo s prayer time ended with a surprising announcement one morning As soon as Dad said ldquo Amen rdquo five-year-old Kaitlyn proclaimed ldquo And I prayed for Logan because he had his eyes open during prayer rdquo I rsquo m pretty sure praying for your -year-old brother rsquo s prayer protocol isn rsquo t what Scripture has in mind when it calls us to intercessory prayer but at least Kaitlyn realized that we can pray for others Bible teacher Oswald Chambers emphasized the importance of praying for someone else He said that ldquo intercession is putting yourself in [... more]

Harriet Tubman was one of the great American heroes of the nineteenth century Showing remarkable courage she guided more than three hundred fellow slaves to freedom after she first escaped slavery by crossing into free territory in the United States north Not content to simply enjoy her own freedom she ventured back into slave states nineteen times to lead friends family and strangers to freedom sometimes guiding people on foot all the way to Canada What drove Miss Tubman to such brave action A woman of deep faith she at one time said this ldquo I always told God I [... more]

ldquo Don rsquo t get on the expressway rdquo That text came from my daughter one day as I was leaving work The highway home had become a virtual parking lot I began trying alternate routes but after experiencing gridlock on other roads I gave up The trip home would have to wait till later in the day so I drove in the opposite direction to an athletic event my granddaughter was involved in Discovering that no roads would lead me home made me think about people who say that all roads lead to an eternal relationship with God Some [... more]

When two of my grandchildren tried out for the musical Alice in Wonderland Jr their hearts were set on getting leading roles Maggie wanted to be young Alice and Katie thought Mathilda would be a good role But they were chosen to be flowers Not exactly a ticket to Broadway Yet my daughter said the girls were ldquo excited for their friends who got the leading roles Their joy seemed greater cheering for their friends and sharing in their excitement rdquo What a picture of how our interactions with each other in the Body of Christ should look Every local [... more]

According to the family legend two brothers one named Billy and the other Melvin were standing on the family rsquo s dairy farm one day when they saw an airplane doing some skywriting The boys watched as the plane sketched out the letters ldquo GP rdquo overhead Both brothers decided that what they saw had meaning for them One thought it meant ldquo Go preach rdquo The other read it as ldquo Go plow rdquo Later one of the boys Billy Graham dedicated himself to preaching the gospel becoming an icon of evangelism His brother Melvin went on to faithfully [... more]

I recently attended a high school graduation during which the speaker provided a needed challenge for the young adults awaiting their diplomas He mentioned that this was a time in their lives when everyone was asking them ldquo What rsquo s next rdquo What career would they be pursuing next Where would they be going to school or working next Then he said that the more important question was what were they doing now In the context of their faith journey what daily decisions would they be making that would guide them each day to live for Jesus and not [... more]

I can never recapture the splendor that was our daughter Melissa Fading from my memory are those wonderful times when we watched her joyfully playing high school volleyball And it rsquo s sometimes hard to remember the shy smile of contentment that crossed her face when we were doing family activities Her death at age seventeen dropped a curtain on the joy of her presence In the book of Lamentations Jeremiah rsquo s words show he understood that the heart can be punctured ldquo My splendor is gone rdquo he said ldquo and all that I had hoped from the [... more]