Listen Now

Though my dad was in ministry for more than 70 years, my mom rarely spoke to groups in public. That's why after she passed away, I was so happy to find some speaking notes of hers. She brought a message based on Romans 12:1, where the apostle Paul writes, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice"--reasonable in light of all that God has done for us.

I'm stunned by how much God loves us--no, actually I'm stunned by how much God loves me, especially on those days when I can't seem to do anything right and I feel so unlovable. Mornings when I stay in my pajamas until noon. Days when I resent being interrupted to help someone else. Evenings when I stay up too late doing "whatever" on my laptop or phone.

Asaph was discouraged--so discouraged, in fact, that he had about given up on God. In Psalm 77, Asaph asks five questions that convey the despair he was feeling: "Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?" (Psalm 77:7-9). Asaph tells us he cried aloud and couldn't sleep. He was in a bad way!

When I crawl in bed at night, sometimes my mind doesn't want to turn off--like a computer that has too many files open at the same time. The houseguests who are coming this weekend, the latest terrible shooting on the news, packing for an upcoming trip, the phone call from a friend whose son is at the point of death, a list for shopping that needs to be done first thing tomorrow morning. My mind flits from one to another. Oh, no, they're not all bad thoughts. It's just that there are so many of them.

My friend Dr. Richard Smith tells of counseling a woman who had been gang raped as a teen. Although she was a believer and said she had forgiven the men, years later the trauma still haunted her.

Do bedtime stories really matter? I mean, does it make any difference in the life of your kids whether or not at the end of the day you take the time to read them a story? ISIS thinks so. Islamic State has recently published a guidebook instructing mothers to tell their children bedtime stories about--get this, martyrdom and heroic jihadists.[1] When I read that, it made me shudder.   [1] Ammar Al Shamary and Gilgamesh Nabeel, USA Today, "Islamic State's New Killers," March 12, 2015, p. 1.

She flipped over the page of the calendar. The new page--February--stared back at her, decorated with its lacey hearts and pink roses. Valentine's Day? Love? Even though she was still in her late teens, she could not relate. In her despair, instead of going downstairs for a drink, she turned to her computer to reach out to a voice she had heard on a Christian radio program: "Guidelines, A Five-minute Commentary on Living." She wrote,

My friend Sonya Goodson posted this on her Facebook page: "I have crossed many bridges that I never came to . . . ."

Here's a thought that challenges me: "Prayer is bringing your wishes and worries to God; faith is leaving them there."[1] The "prayer" part is easy, but the "faith" part--that is, leaving our worries with God, is quite another matter, right?   [1] http://goo.gl/8qr7z3, accessed 7-27-2016.

"Just do the next thing" was the advice author Elisabeth Elliot gave to her daughter, Valerie, when she called on the phone one morning at a point of desperation. Homeschooling her eight children, Valerie had reached the end of her resources. "What do I do, Mom? I just can't go on."

Sometimes when you open Facebook Notifications on your phone or computer, you see a face you've never seen before--that is, until you glance at the name and realize it's someone you know well. The person has simply posted a new Profile picture--and you didn't immediately recognize who it is. Chances are it's a girlfriend of yours who has taken a new selfie in a stylish pose that she thinks makes her look prettier than the previous shot did. Come on, let's be honest: who ever posts an ugly picture of herself on Facebook?

Courtney Ellis tells of the time her family was driving down the highway when a deer darted out from the bushes, colliding with their car before her dad even saw the animal. The airbags deployed. The car was totaled. But fortunately no one was seriously hurt.

In a little book called "Diamond Dust," I found an anonymous quote that caught my attention. Here it is: "If, in spite of all your tears and prayers, God has left you in a dark place, perhaps it's because He knows there are still treasures to be found there."

I was always quite close to my Uncle Phil, so when he passed away, I grieved deeply. A few days after he was gone, a long-time mutual friend, Dr. Dorothy Jean Furlong, wrote these words to me, "Don't think I'm hard-hearted, but I think sometimes believers need to remember Paul's words 'to die is gain.'" She was referring to a verse in the first chapter of the apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians. The verse says, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (verse 21).

So much of life keeps us in turmoil. Have you noticed that just when you think you can't cope with another crisis, you're slammed with a new one? Like a ship tossed around in a storm, you struggle to deal with the latest urgent situation that challenges you.

In 2001 Charlotte suffered a major stroke that resulted in her losing not only her speech but the use of both legs and one arm. But Charlotte was determined not to give up on life. In spite of her disabilities, she believed she could still fulfill her desire to share the Gospel with those who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus. She learned about a project to make leather bracelets that have five colored beads strung on them to represent five facets of the Gospel message.

Driving through rural Connecticut, I noticed highway signs directing people to the Thankful Arnold House—brown signs that denote a place of historical significance. I couldn't help wondering who Thankful Arnold was, what happened to him to make him thankful, and why his house is significant.

Eric Denton can't help all of the poor in Mexico, but he's making a tremendous difference for the ones he does help. He and a team of 28 people from the church he pastors in Riverside, California, went on a building mission. They started with just two homes in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Mexican border town of Tijuana. One of the homes was for a family who was living under a tree—a single mom trying to raise 3 kids, working all day while the kids fended for themselves.

Allan Franklin Davis III - Bud, as he was called - waited only until he was eight years old to do something significant, and it happened on the basketball court. By this time, he had already been playing for four years. So, when the season began that year, Bud was surprised to learn that most of the players on his team had never played basketball before. Needless to say, they lost most of their games.

For many years Drs. Paul and Margaret Brand were dedicated medical missionaries in India.