In his book nbsp Adopted for Life Dr Russell Moore describes his family rsquo s trip to an orphanage to adopt a child As they entered the nursery the silence was startling The babies in the cribs never cried and it wasn rsquo t because they never needed anything but because they had learned that no one cared enough to answer My heart ached as I read those words I remember countless nights when our children were small My wife and I would be sound asleep only to be startled awake by their cries Daddy I rsquo m sick or [... more]

I set my phone down weary of the constant bombardment of images ideas and notifications that the little screen broadcasted Then I picked it up and turned it on again Why In his book The Shallows Nicholas Carr describes how the internet has shaped our relationship with stillness ldquo What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation Whether I rsquo m online or not my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it in a swiftly moving stream of particles Once I was a scuba diver in [... more]

Anne grew up in poverty and pain Two of her siblings died in infancy At five an eye disease left her partially blind and unable to read or write When Anne was eight her mother died from tuberculosis Shortly after her abusive father abandoned his three surviving children The youngest was sent to live with relatives but Anne and her brother Jimmie went to Tewksbury Almshouse a dilapidated overcrowded poorhouse A few months later Jimmie died At age fourteen Anne rsquo s circumstances brightened She was sent to a school for the blind where she underwent surgery to improve her [... more]

Months after suffering a miscarriage Valerie decided to have a garage sale Gerald a neighbor craftsman a few miles away eagerly bought the baby crib she was selling While there his wife talked with Valerie and learned about her loss After hearing of her situation on the way home Gerald decided to use the crib to craft a keepsake for Valerie A week later he tearfully presented her with a beautiful bench ldquo There rsquo s good people out there and here rsquo s proof rdquo Valerie said Like Valerie Ruth and Naomi suffered great loss Naomi rsquo s husband [... more]

Perhaps I shouldn rsquo t have agreed to join Brian on a run I was in a foreign country and I had no idea where or how far we would go or what the terrain would be like Plus he was a fast runner Would I twist an ankle trying to keep up with him What could I do but trust Brian because he knew the way As we started I got even more worried The trail was rough winding through a thick forest on uneven ground Thankfully Brian kept turning around to check on me and warn me of [... more]

The timing couldn rsquo t have been worse After making a small fortune engineering bridges monuments and large buildings Cesar had aspirations of starting a new endeavor So he sold his first business and banked the money planning to reinvest it soon During that brief window his government seized all assets held in private bank accounts In an instant Cesar rsquo s lifesavings evaporated Choosing not to view the injustice as a cause to complain Cesar asked God to show him the way forward And then mdash he simply started over In one awful moment Job lost far more than [... more]

Hansle Parchment was in a predicament He caught the bus to the wrong place for his semifinal in the Tokyo Olympics and was left stranded with little hope of getting to the stadium on time But thankfully he met Trijana Stojkovic a volunteer helping out at the games She gave him some money to take a taxi Parchment made it to the semifinal on time and eventually clinched the gold medal in the -meter hurdle Later he went back to find Stojkovic and thanked her for her kindness In Luke we read of the Samaritan leper who came back to [... more]

Soccer player Christian Pulisic faced several injuries that influenced the course of his career After learning he wouldn rsquo t be in the starting lineup of the Champions League semifinals game he was disappointed but he described how God had revealed Himself to him ldquo As always I reach out to God and He gives me strength rdquo he said ldquo I feel like I always have Someone who rsquo s with me I don rsquo t know how I would do any of this without that feeling rdquo Pulisic ultimately made a momentous impact when he was substituted later [... more]

What do we do when we are required to stand boldly for what we believe in amid life rsquo s challenges In a small Illinois town domestic violence comprises forty percent of all crimes in the community According to a local pastor this issue is often hidden in our faith communities because it rsquo s uncomfortable to talk about So instead of shying away from the problem local ministers chose to exercise faith and courageously address the issue by taking classes to recognize the signs of violence and supporting non-profit organizations working on the issue Acknowledging the power of faith [... more]

The magazine I was writing for felt ldquo important rdquo so I struggled to present the best possible article I could for the high-ranking editor Feeling pressure to meet her standards I kept rewriting my thoughts and ideas But what was my problem Was it my controversial topic Or was my real worry personal Would the editor approve of me and not just my words For answers to our job worries Paul gives trustworthy instruction In a letter to the Colossian church Paul urged believers to work not for approval of people but for God As the apostle said ldquo [... more]

Temperatures where we live in Colorado can change quickly mdash sometimes within a few minutes So my husband Dan was curious about the temperature differences in and around our home As a fan of gadgets he was excited to unpack his latest ldquo toy rdquo mdash a thermometer showing temperature readings from four ldquo zones rdquo around our house Joking that it was a ldquo silly rdquo gadget I was surprised to find myself frequently checking the temperatures too The differences inside and out fascinated me Jesus used temperature to describe the ldquo lukewarm rdquo church in Laodicea one of [... more]

Lea was about to start a job as a nurse in Taiwan She rsquo d be able to provide better for her family more than she could in Manila where job opportunities were limited On the night before her departure she gave instructions to her sister who rsquo d be taking care of her five-year-old daughter ldquo She rsquo ll take her vitamins if you also give her a spoonful of peanut butter rdquo Lea explained ldquo And remember she rsquo s shy She rsquo ll play with her cousins eventually And she rsquo s afraid of the dark rdquo [... more]

Are we there yet Not yet Are we there yet Not yet That was the back-and-forth game we played on the first and definitely not the last sixteen-hour trip back home to Arkansas from Colorado when our children were young Our oldest two kept the game alive and well and if I had a dollar for every time they asked well I rsquo d have a stack of dollars It was a question my children were obsessed with but I the driver was equally obsessed wondering ldquo Are we there yet rdquo And the answer was ldquo Not yet but [... more]

Leisa wanted a way to redeem the season So many of the autumn decorations she saw seemed to celebrate death sometimes in gruesome and macabre ways nbsp Determined to counter the darkness in some small way Leisa began to write things she was grateful for with a permanent marker on a large pumpkin ldquo Sunshine rdquo was the first item Soon visitors were adding to her list Some entries were whimsical ldquo doodling rdquo for instance Others were practical ldquo a warm house rdquo ldquo a working car rdquo Still others were poignant like the name of a departed loved [... more]

The village vicar couldn rsquo t sleep As World War II raged he rsquo d told a small group of American soldiers they couldn rsquo t bury their fallen comrade inside the fenced cemetery next to his church Only burials for church members were allowed So the men buried their beloved friend just outside the fence The next morning however the soldiers couldn rsquo t find the grave ldquo What happened The grave is gone rdquo one soldier told the reverend ldquo Oh it rsquo s still there rdquo he told him The soldier was confused but the churchman explained [... more]

ldquo Uncle Arthur do you remember the day you took me to the barbershop and the supermarket I was wearing tan khakis a blue-plaid oxford shirt a navy-blue cardigan brown socks and brown Rockport shoes The date was Thursday October rdquo My nephew Jared rsquo s autism-related challenges are offset by his phenomenal memory that can recall details like days and dates and the clothes he was wearing years after an event took place Because of the way he rsquo s wired Jared possesses the kind of memory that reminds me of the all-knowing loving God mdash the Keeper of [... more]

ldquo Daddy will you read to me rdquo my daughter asked It rsquo s not an unusual question for a child to make of a parent But my daughter is eleven now These days such requests are fewer than they were when she was younger ldquo Yes rdquo I said happily and she curled up next to me on the couch As I read to her from The Fellowship of the Ring she practically melted into me It was one of those glorious moments as a parent when we feel perhaps just an inkling of the perfect love our Father [... more]

ldquo God is crying rdquo Those were the words whispered by Bill Haley rsquo s ten-year-old daughter as she stood in the rain with a group of multiethnic believers in Jesus They had come to Virginia rsquo s Shenandoah Valley to seek God and make sense of the legacy of racial discord in America As they stood on the grounds where former slaves were buried they joined hands in prayer Then suddenly the wind began to blow and it started to rain As the leader called out for racial healing the rain began to fall even harder Those gathered believed [... more]

Years ago my son Josh and I were making our way up a mountain trail when we spied a cloud of dust rising in the air We crept forward and discovered a badger busy making a den in a dirt bank He had his head and shoulders in the hole and was vigorously digging with his front paws and kicking the dirt out of the hole with his hind feet He was so invested in his work he didn rsquo t hear us nbsp nbsp I couldn t resist and prodded him from behind with a long stick lying nearby [... more]

The little Bible college in northern Ghana didn rsquo t look impressive mdash just a tin-roofed cinder-block building and a handful of students Yet Bob Hayes poured his life into those students He gave them leadership roles and encouraged them to preach and teach despite their occasional reluctance Bob passed away years ago but dozens of thriving churches schools and two additional Bible institutes have sprung up across Ghana mdash all started by graduates of that humble school During the reign of King Artaxerxes ndash bc Ezra the scribe assembled a band of Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem But [... more]

Dennis rsquo life was transformed after someone gave him a New Testament Reading it captivated him and it became his constant companion Within six months two life-changing events occurred in his life He placed his faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins and he was diagnosed with a brain tumor after experiencing severe headaches Because of the unbearable physical pain he became bedridden and unable to work One painful sleepless night he found himself crying out to God Sleep finally came at a m Bodily pain and affliction can cause us to cry out to God but [... more]

When their bank accidentally deposited into their account a couple went on a shopping spree They purchased an SUV camper and two four-wheelers in addition to paying off bills Discovering the deposit error the bank told the couple to return the money Unfortunately the husband and wife had already spent it They were then charged with felony theft When the couple arrived at the local court the husband said to a reporter ldquo We took some bad legal advice rdquo The two learned that following bad advice and spending what wasn rsquo t theirs could lead to making a mess [... more]

Ramesh loves to tell others about Jesus He boldly speaks with coworkers and one weekend each month returns to his village to evangelize from house to house His enthusiasm is contagious mdash especially since he rsquo s learned the value of taking time to rest and relax Ramesh used to spend every weekend and most evenings proclaiming the gospel His wife and children missed him when he was out and they found him exhausting when he was around He needed to make every minute and conversation count He couldn rsquo t enjoy games or small talk Ramesh was wound too [... more]

Within twenty-four hours of his mother Sharonda rsquo s tragic death Chris found himself uttering these powerful grace-filled words ldquo Love is stronger than hate rdquo His mother along with eight others had been killed at a Wednesday night Bible study in Charleston South Carolina What was it that had so shaped this teenager rsquo s life that these words could flow from his lips and his heart Chris is a believer in Jesus whose mother had ldquo loved everybody with all her heart rdquo nbsp In Luke ndash we get a front row seat to an execution scene that [... 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]

The verse on the card Lisa received didn rsquo t seem to match her situation ldquo Then the Lord opened the servant rsquo s eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha rdquo Kings I have cancer she thought in confusion I rsquo ve just lost a baby A verse about angel soldiers does not apply Then the ldquo angels rdquo began to show up Cancer survivors gave her their time and a listening ear Her husband got released early from an overseas military assignment Friends prayed with her But [... more]

The early spring weather was refreshing and my traveling companion my wife couldn rsquo t have been better But the beauty of those moments together could have quickly morphed into tragedy if it weren rsquo t for a red and white warning sign that prompted me I was headed in the wrong direction Because I hadn rsquo t turned wide enough I momentarily saw a ldquo Do Not Enter rdquo sign staring me in the face I quickly adjusted but shudder to think of the harm I could have done to my wife myself and others if I rsquo d [... more]