Category: Christian Living

Back to School for the Glory of God

When I was in school, summer vacation always went too fast. Somehow three months off felt like only three weeks, and suddenly I found myself standing in the school supplies aisle at Wal-Mart anticipating the beginning of another year. As I reflect back on my schooling,...

When the Bible Isn’t Boring Anymore

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” -John 10:27 Jesus Christ knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him (John 10:14). They don’t “know” one another in the sense that they were merely introduced sometime in the past, but they...

The Man Who Would Not Read His Bible

He could read it, but he didn’t. Clifford Averill Foster went to Earl Buel Grade School in Drane County. He learned to read like all the others. He wasn’t the best reader—certainly not the fastest—but he could read. That’s the point. Clifford read what was necessary...

The Difference Between Moths and Cockroaches (The Anatomy and Importance of Desire)

What is it that you want the most? What are you irresistibly drawn to? What do you prefer over everything else? These are not inconsequential questions. The answers reveal who (or what) you really are. Believe it or not, the importance of these questions can be...

Seek and You Will Find: The Investigative Spirit that Leads to Salvation

Once, when a large crowd was present, Jesus told a parable about a sower sowing seed (Luke 8:4-8). He explained that some of the seeds fell on hard ground and were immediately snatched up by birds. Other seeds fell on shallow rocky soil. They sprouted, but...

My Darkest Night; Hopefully Not Yours

At 3:30 a.m., I awoke to a black room, so dark that my eyes could not see even one inch away, much less to the other side. The simple room in a Romanian home in Brasov had one of those metal external shades that are lowered...

Man Killed by Armed Bird at Cockfight. . . and other illustrations of the nearness of your death

You’ve done it a time or two yourself—that is, you’ve planned, or at least speculated about, the details of your own death. If you like fast cars, perhaps you’ll die in a fiery crash. Or, because you’re a bit overweight, you can easily imagine dying of...

How to Grow Your Church Numerically

The early church grew in numbers. “…there were added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (2:47). “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both...

Soothing Poison: The Seductive Old Lie of the New False Prophet

Near my home in the heart of America, outside a quaint church building where Christianity is supposedly represented, stands a sign that says, “None Need Saving; No, Not One.” This all-too-obvious play on Romans 3:10—”There is none righteous, no, not one”—boldly rejects the plain truth of...

Suffering Evangelism

If you had tuberculosis, what would you do? Doug Nichols is the Founder and International Director Emeritus of Action International Ministries. While serving as a missionary in India in 1967, he contracted tuberculosis. He was treated in a sanatorium in India, and while there he tried...