Category: Outreach
Your Very Worst Problem
Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. The worst thing that can happen to you, or to any human being, is to die on the wrong side of God’s judgment. As Jesus said of Judas after he exposed himself as a greedy...
Pain for Him; Gain for Them
Muslim extremists murdered Ayub’s grandmother on one of the islands of Indonesia. We stayed in the home of this warmhearted Christian leader a few years ago. He serves as an elder for the church meeting in a home nearby. We loved this brother and his wife...
Moses, Joshua, Jesus, and Rest
I’m sure you know the feeling of restlessness. There is a longing deep in our bones that desires rest. No nap can fix this lack of rest. Augustine, a prominent Christian from the third and fourth centuries, knew of this restlessness. He prayed, “You have made...
How To Spot A Fool
They’re everywhere. Foolish people dominate the airwaves and are present in our homes, schools, churches, and workplaces. They can even be right inside our own clothes. Everyone has chosen a foolish path at times. And sadly, some have taken up permanent residence in that destructive...
Should People Feel Badly Before Responding to the Good News?
It seemed as if a wet wool coat of conviction was covering me before I came to Christ. I was weighted down with guilt. It seemed unbearable. Something had to change. My mother faithfully shared good news with me. I had heard it all before, but...
If Many Die at Once: A Brockton Dialogue
A Brockton Dialogue The older, wiser Mr. Brockton: When scores of people lose their lives at one time, it isn’t alarming, but it is tragic. The younger disciple, James: How is it possible not to be alarmed if 5000 die in an earthquake or 10,000 in...
The Gift of Love: When Do I Die?
It was told as true, but I cannot be sure of that. However, such love as I’m about to show you has been seen in the history of the world many times, in one form or another. It is sacrificial love, like Christ’s. It is the...
Seeking and Saving Zacchaeus, the Wee Little Man
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.” The story of Jesus seeking and saving Zacchaeus is found in Luke 19:1-10. The song, quoted above and throughout, is sung by children throughout the English-speaking church world. It memorably summarizes the Zacchaeus...
God’s Way, Not Ours: Kingdom Advance Out of Something Awful
The story of the death of the first martyr of the early church, Stephen, is both ugly and spectacular (see Acts 7:54-60). The ugliness of Stephen’s murderers is found in such phrases as these: “they were enraged” (v. 54); “they ground their teeth at him” (v....
Spiritual Lepers Made Clean
Some lepers in Jesus’ day had it worse than others. We know of one man in the Bible who had a severe case of leprosy because Luke writes, “While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy” (5:12a). Did you...
