Category: CHRISTIAN LIFE

When the Money Runs Out: Six Lessons from John Stam

Financial stress is to the mind as nausea is to the stomach—uncomfortable and impossible to ignore. If you are a Christian, it can be even worse because you know that you’re supposed to trust God, and yet you instinctively worry, “What am I going to do?”...

Who Is the Person of God-Pleasing Faith?

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Faith is also the means of gaining God’s approval, “for by it the men of old gained approval” (11:2). Furthermore, faith is the only means of gaining God’s...

What To Do About the Stuff You Have To Do

My wife and I recently returned from living overseas and will soon move into a rental house here in Kansas City. These two things have made life difficult. Too many things to think about: health insurance, car insurance, car registration, couches, rugs, tables, chairs, plates, cups,...

What Does Luck Have to Do with It?

Joni Eareckson Tada is one of the most gracious and effective Christians in the world. She has lived with the results of a diving accident that broke her neck during her teen years. At 50 she continues to radiate Christ to a listening world. Joni is...

What Do You Love About Jesus?

It’s easy to profess to be a Christian based on church attendance, a sinner’s prayer once prayed, a baptism, or a family tradition, but none of these are reliable tests of your profession of faith in Christ. One’s claim to know Christ becomes less flippant when...

Waves of Doubt

Doubt is deafening. Like the commotion in a crowded hallway that makes your conversation impossible, or a roaring jet engine near your head, doubt has a way of blocking out everything else. As you listen to the pastor preaching, or read the Bible, doubt screams in...

Watch the Wine: Being Christ’s Nazirites

Samson was a Nazirite. His hair was to be uncut and he was to drink no wine (even grape juice) or liquor. For him, the vow of the Nazirite was to last all his life. He didn’t carry out his vow, a commitment entered into by...

Walking the House

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....

Waiting for Unexpected Appointments

A band of swarthy men prod their sleepy camels out of slumber to face another interminable, boiling desert day. As traders from the land of Midian, Egypt’s bustling bazaars beckon. But unknown to them, they will keep an appointment they do not know they have. And...

Upheld in the Depths

Things are different at the lowest point on earth: swimming is floating, water brings death and salty mud becomes a cosmetic phenomenon. This is what it is like in the Dead Sea basin at about 1,400 feet below sea level. It looks beautiful, but it is—as...