The son and daughter-in-law of missionary J. Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) were privileged to spend much time with Taylor in China. They not only saw Taylor’s ministry in public, but the kind of man he was in private. Well do the writers remember traveling with him month after month in northern China, by cart and wheelbarrow, […]

At the heart of the gospel is this message: Jesus of Nazareth is alive from the dead! According to the Apostle Paul, that reality is the linchpin of the Christian faith, both for those who proclaim it and those who believe it (1 Corinthians 15:14-19). So, what difference does it make that Jesus is risen? […]

My precocious and normally charming five-year-old granddaughter hugged me this week, then paused and said, “You smell like broccoli soup.” She flitted off and left me wondering how that could possible be.  I shared this with her father who laughed with me and said that she had said the same thing about him. Since neither […]

Believers know the future. That doesn’t mean we have knowledge of certain specifics (future spouse, job, number of children, etc.). But we can be confident in what the Bible says God has planned and promised, and that should change how we think and act in the present. In Daniel 8, during “the third year of […]

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” That question may well be the most important one in the Bible. The Apostle Paul didn’t take a long time to answer the jailer in Philippi who asked it. His response was straightforward: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” God promises the greatest […]

Yesterday, I read the first couple of chapters of author James A. Michener’s The World is My Home, a Memoir. In his introduction, he was explaining why he had chosen to complete this 500-plus page book at 85 years of age. Here’s his explanation: I have been impelled to attempt this project because of an […]

The title is a little misleading, but now that you are here, read what I have to say. I’m suggesting that many of you begin to walk IN your house . . . and that you do it as a way of improving physically and spiritually. I have a beat in my home that takes […]

I enjoy reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar with my young children. This board book classic is useful for teaching kids colors, numbers, names of different foods, the days of the week, and the gastric consequences of eating too much food in one day! But perhaps the best part of this story is its depiction of […]

In Romans 6:17 Paul tells us that Christians are people who have become “obedient from the heart.” No longer is their obedience motivated only by fear of God’s judgment, or fear of disapproval from other people, or fear of living with a tormented conscience. Now they obey because they want to. But what do they […]