Category: Life Issues
Purpose Until Death
I queried an older man who had become a dear friend with a pointedly stark question: what is your purpose in life? He is advanced in years. He ought to know by now. The question struck home, and he teared up trying to answer it. He...
Learning From Job: How We Should Think About Suffering
“Just as sure as sparks fly upward, likewise man is born for trouble” (Job 5:7). All of us are either coming out of a trial, in the midst of a trial, or will soon be going into a trial. When suffering comes, where will we find...
His Father and Ours
We probably all have a story of accidentally leaving a child behind somewhere. Maybe you arrived home from church with one less child. I once knew a guy who left his wife behind at a rest stop. Accidentally. When twelve-year-old Jesus was left behind at the...
“You Don’t Have to Say Something Biblical Right Away,” and Other Better Ways to Encourage Newly Suffering Believers
Believers suffer for the benefit of other suffering believers. Paul told the Corinthians that the affliction he and his team experienced in Asia was so difficult that “we despaired of life itself. Indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Cor 1:8b-9a)....
Come to Jesus…Right Now!
Perhaps you have heard the gospel before. But you have not yet come to Jesus or believed in him to save you. What can you do? First, hear the gospel again and be sure you understand who Jesus is, what he has done to deliver sinners,...
Grieving the Death of a Believer with Unique Christian Hope
You may be grieving the death of a fellow believer who was close to you. It might be a dear family member or cherished friend. Whether in the distant past or more recently, they passed away, and you began the natural grieving process. God does not...
The John and Betty Stam Way: Faith in God Leads to Stories About God
Has God answered prayer in your life recently? Do you have any specific stories to tell about God’s faithfulness? And be honest: do you almost always take the “safe” option in life? John and Betty Stam served with China Inland Mission (founded by Hudson Taylor in...
The Cheerful Giver
“Each one of you must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). These words from Paul are often misunderstood to imply that one should give only when he feels an inner...
“I Forgive Him”: The Potency of Forgiveness
The wife of Charlie Kirk, Erika, said with much emotion that she forgives her husband’s assassin. “I forgive him” were words which powerfully impacted the thousands in the arena and millions streaming during the memorial service for her husband. She meant, surely, that she would not...
God’s Design for Your Persecution
Christian persecution is any intentional hostility, opposition, or ill-treatment aimed at followers of Christ because they are seeking to obey the Lord Jesus by proclaiming his gospel, promoting his righteous ways, and/or conducting godly lives (Matthew 5:10-11; 2 Timothy 3:12). In the future it seems that...
