Category: Life Issues

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...

FIRST Be Reconciled

Have you ever discovered after-the-fact that you had offended another Christian? Maybe what you said or did was not intended in an offensive way, but you found out later it was misunderstood or taken out of context. Maybe you should have known at the time that...

Suffering: The Only Pathway to Glory

Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They answered, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matt. 16:13-14). There apparently was much confusion and speculation among the masses concerning his...

What Should I Do Today?

After so often exhorting Timothy verbally and in written form over fifteen years or so, it’s as if Paul summarized it all when he wrote this to his son in the faith: “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist,...

What was Jesus’ Greatest Commandment? 

Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world. So, like a wise and loving father who assembles his young children around his deathbed to prepare them for life without him, Jesus gathered his disciples to equip them to be his effective witnesses in the...

The Reality of Anxiety

Have you read, listened to, or watched the news recently? It is full of bad reports concerning war, diseases, natural disasters, crime, political corruption and turmoil, economic inflation, unemployment and poverty. Such is life under the sun in a fallen world where sin and its consequences...