Imagine you’ve pastored a church for many years, and one of your church members, Cindy, comes to meet with you. She describes, through tears, an incident when her husband, Mark, threw her to the ground in a fit of rage. She tells you that when he loses his temper like this, he later apologizes and…
Old Testament prophecies usually have a historical and future context. The historical context is often a word of judgment based on the failure to obey God’s revealed will, relating to how we treat one another and others. The future context is often a word of hope and restoration. This is seen in three passages in…
As parents, we feel joy and gratification when we see our children getting along with each other. It puts a smile on a parent’s face to hear an older child reading to younger siblings, or to see brothers and sisters happily playing a game together. However, even the most well-behaved children sometimes argue and fight…
Imagine being a young lady who is kidnapped and then manipulated into a marriage because a young man finds her attractive. This happens almost every day in Kyrgyzstan. Although “bride stealing” is illegal, it’s still considered culturally acceptable. Contrary to popular belief, most young women involved in human trafficking are not kidnapped. Most are convinced…
Preachers usually take time to pray over our sermons because we want to make certain we are hearing the Word of God accurately. We want to clearly convey that Word to our listeners. So imagine if in your prayerful preparation the Holy Spirit tells you to stand up and call women in your congregation “cows.”…
We have all read terrifying stories about the persecution of Christians. Recently I’ve seen articles about attacks on Christians in Nigeria, China and the Middle East. Although most of these stories are based on real events, some have been making the rounds for years. I’ve seen the same handful of stories about persecution in China…
I remember the day I became pro-life. Until then I was opposed to abortion but paid little attention to the inherent quality of life that is in creation. It took the death of a premature guinea hen to enlarge my understanding. My husband, Jackie, and I keep a small farm. Over the years, we have…
I recently watched a television commercial about the neglect and abuse of dogs in the United States. Pictures of needy dogs flashed across the screen. The pets looked malnourished and had been harmed or abandoned, and a celebrity spokesperson encouraged viewers to donate to local shelters or to adopt the pets. After watching this, I…
Throughout the Old Testament, God reminds His people of who they were. He often told them: “You were slaves (or aliens) in Egypt” (see Lev 23:22; Deut. 5:15; 10:17-22; 24:17-29). And while the word for slave (‘ebed) and alien (gér) are different, they were often interchangeable. If you were a gér, you were often an…
In 1883, Emma Lazarus wrote a poem about the Statue of Liberty called “The New Colossus.” Today the words of that sonnet appear on the pedestal of the monument. The Statue of Liberty stands to welcome the world with this silent cry, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,…
