Introduction I remember once kneeling at the feet of my father and praying as I tried to clip his toenails. With his third-stage Parkinson's disease, he was not able to do things like this for himself, and with the muscle weakness in my hands from Lyme disease, I was afraid of cutting him since he bled so easily. The pain of my mother's heart failure and precarious recuperation weighed down both of us, and I could almost hear my father's lonely sobbing still echoing from t

Glimpsing Eternal Glory Arriving at Book V of the Psalms is like reaching the top of a mountain, only to discover a whole new mountain range beyond this summit. With Zion at last in view, we nevertheless realize that we are not yet home: this magnificent new height of victory is but the prelude to eternity. With renewed humility, we look down to realize that we would have dropped to our death in this breathtaking climb, had the Lord not given us feet like hinds' feet and

The Lord, Our Dwelling Place Anyone who loves Psalm 23 is going to love Book IV of the Psalms. Comprising  Psalms 90-106 , Book IV shows Israel emerging from the valley of the shadow of death to dwell instead under the Shadow of the Almighty. Those who witnessed the catastrophic destruction of Solomon's Temple as seen in Book III are now brought back to the words of Moses in Psalm 90, believed to be the oldest Psalm in the Bible: "LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place

It was April 15, 2019. Some last-minute tax-filers might have had their thoughts fixated on finishing their returns. But most of the world was watching in horror and grief as Notre Dame Cathedral was burning. I remember where I was standing in Doris Henderson Newcomers School in Greensboro, North Carolina, when my teacher-friend Vanessa told me in her endearing Australian accent that Notre Dame Cathedral was on fire. I looked at her dumbfounded as chills of disbelief an

Introduction A chunky white King James Bible with yellow-orange edges might not seem like an appropriate gift to place in the hands of a small child today, but this Bible not only set the course of a lifetime journey for me; it fed my natural childhood's curiosity. I felt from my earliest days the sacred weight of both duty and wonder in reading God's Word. The difficulty of doing so in itself spoke eloquently to the thrill of knowing God. I knew in my spirit that I neede

Only a boy named David; only a rippling brook; only a boy named David, but five little stones he took! In his best-selling book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell supports the intriguing thesis that misfits and underdogs turn the course of history. The viewpoint that has been rejected is, after all, frequently the right one, and the misfit who leans into his impending failure often reaps the reward of staking his all.

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind dri

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind dri

A Gift Still to Be Opened The new year teases like a bright green package still waiting to be opened. What does it hold in store? We want a new beginning, but we don't want things to change. We pick up a blank journal, turning hope into history with a deep resolve to meet our destiny unafraid. Some people take Christmas with them, leaving up tiny twinkle lights all year. But what if we all kept candles burning out of holy expectation? A Revelation to Behold A revelat

" But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31 Introduction One of the most beloved promises in the Bible, Isaiah 40:31 could very well also be one of the least-claimed. Most people don't like waiting, and, for some, waiting too long for anything brings out their true colors. Most of us think of waiting as a w

Introduction What a beautiful tradition is gift-giving! For those whose love language is giving and receiving gifts, Christmas is the best time of the year, although nothing stops a cheerful giver from giving a gift when least expected. Now synonymous with expressing affection and celebration, gift-giving has not always been packaged with the pretty trappings of altruism. The historical roots of gift-giving reveal nations' underlying motives of self-interest and self-pre

Introduction This is not a historical overview of religious art but only a philosophical tribute in cameo form. Although I do mean the visual arts, I do not mean only the visual arts but those that involve the process of human creativity, which includes literature and music. As created in the image of God, we are inherently creative, some more than others, it is true, but even those who claim to possess little creativity of their own generally appreciate its expression in

If history is made up of individuals, it is also certainly made up of moments. The birth of Jesus Christ occurred in one divine moment centuries in the making, and remarkably, only one historian in the entire world has recorded that moment: the Apostle Paul's beloved physician and traveling companion, Luke. I never realized just how viciously Luke's account of Jesus' birth had been attacked until I borrowed a book one day from my father's extensive library. It doesn't loo

Have you clopped along the cobbled streets of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, one of Germany's oldest and best-preserved medieval towns, where it feels like Christmas all year? This time-capsule of days gone by, tracing back to the 10th century, was once home to a handsome nutcracker that I took back to the States with me in August of 1989. Yes, that was a long time ago. The Berlin Wall was just a couple of months away from coming down. For those of us who heard President Ronal

Introduction The story of Hannah in I Samuel is one of my favorite in the entire Bible. After years of barrenness, Hannah sees her prayer answered, and she gives her little son to the Lord, exactly as she had promised. How easy it would have been to retract her vow and to keep Samuel for herself, but Hannah not only does nothing of the kind, she presents Samuel to Eli with triumphant rejoicing. Her prayer of dedication after Samuel has been weaned (I Samuel 2:1-10) bears

It doesn't take deep thought to realize that we live in not only a thankless but an angry world. People we don't even know leave nasty replies to comments on blogposts and videos if we dare to express a true statement that isn't very popular. Follow the comments section on the assassination of Charlie Kirk, for example, and see the hatred spewing everywhere. Not only do we live in an angry world, we live in a world corrupted to the core with selfishness and idolatry. Just

Believing that the word "sinner" is not only overused but misused today in reference to God's children, and, believing that it matters whether we identify ourselves as "sinners" or as "saints," I have set out to study Scripture's use of the word "saints." The search is as easy as it is daunting, for the word "saints" is used at least 98 times in the King James Bible, but it isn't at all difficult to find the references. With Strong's Concordance and a journal in front of me

It wouldn't be too surprising to hear that Christians these days are going through an identity crisis. This crisis might not involve merely the question of who we are ourselves but also with whom we can identify anymore. The Christian landscape seems ever changing, to the point that people we thought we trusted yesterday turn out to be someone entirely different today. That respected leader lets us down, and we find out that we have no heroes left, after all. Some people'

Most of us will never know what really goes on behind the scenes during the week of Halloween. If you have ever felt more Satanic oppression during this time than at others, you are not alone. Perhaps your spirit feels a burden you cannot shake, a heaviness you cannot explain, a depression you cannot dismiss. What's really going on? My mother told of a time when she and my father experienced unusual Satanic oppression when they had a next door neighbor who was a practicin

Narrative Arc and the Biblical Worldview When Jesus likens the days before His return to the days of Noah, He shows that human history moves in a circle. And yet this circle is intriguingly different from the wheel of time found within the Eastern worldview. Rather than merely revolving in an eternal rotation of birth, death, and rebirth, human history in reality repeats itself in successively worsening degrees. Jesus makes this clear when He warns that it will be easier