August 25, 2024
ALONE AND REJECTED
As we take Communion, let us remember Jesus, who gave everything so we would never be alone or rejected like he was, not even in our darkest nights or our final breaths.
Articles for tag: Matthew 2:4
July 1, 2023
Learning About Alzheimer’s, Myself, and God
(And Determined to Remember the Forgetting) By Mark A. Taylor I sat with my friend Joan, a gentle, pretty 83-year-old, who is the picture of Southern grace and charm. She was her husband’s caregiver for the seven years he suffered with Alzheimer’s disease, until he died in April 2021. I was interviewing Joan for my website, Unchosen Journey: A Caregiver’s Walk with Alzheimer’s (www.unchosenjourney.com). “How did you cope with his death?” I asked her. “Our 59 years were good years,” she said. “But today I want to remember the hard times.” “Why?” I responded. I wasn’t expecting this—or her reaction
March 20, 2023
Reverse the Curse
Sin’s curse has been removed by the Savior’s cure.
September 1, 2022
Who Are You?
How to Respond When the World Tries to Dismantle Your God-Given Identity By Wes Beavis “I hear voices inside my head.” This statement raises the sensitivities of a clinical psychologist. Hearing internal voices can be a sign of schizophrenia, which can drive people into homelessness. But schizophrenia is not just limited to the down and out. John Nash, a brilliant mathematician, would carry on conversations with people inside his head. His story was made into a movie called A Beautiful Mind. Despite suffering from schizophrenia, Nash’s intellectual capacity and achievements led to him being awarded a Nobel Memorial Prize in
May 9, 2022
May 15 | The Story of the Master’s Return
This lesson text is highly metaphoric. The main metaphor concerns a master and servant. But under that big-picture metaphor are at least eight others that make this text quite visual . . .
December 13, 2019
The #1 Frustration of Christian Leaders
How Do We Respond to the Spiritual Lethargy of the People Entrusted to Us? By Michael C. Mack Even the greatest Christian leaders can become disheartened, and perhaps exasperated, with the people under their care. An obvious Old Testament example is Moses, who had to deal with the wayward Israelites over and over again for 40 years. A New Testament example is the apostle Paul, who had to write letters to whole churches because of his frustrations with their lack of spiritual growth, their disagreements, disorder, and distractions from the gospel. Even the world’s greatest leader became exasperated with his
August 12, 2016
Crying for Calvary
By Victor Knowles In 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation establishing the first National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. (It will be observed next on Jan. 15, 2017.) This day calls attention to the cause of the unborn and to the precious gift of life itself. Life is a sacred gift from God, but it was not considered so in the time of Christ. The Anglican priest and poet G. A. Studdert-Kennedy (1883″“1929) writes in his famous poem “Indifference”: When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged Him on a tree, They drave great nails through hands and feet, and
January 5, 2016
A Welcome””and More
By Mark A. Taylor It”s tough to be a child in America these days, especially if you”re one of the children described by statistics like these: “¢ One in 45 children in America experience homelessness each year, a total of 1.6 million children.1 “¢ More than five children die every day as a result of child abuse, and about 80 percent of these are under the age of 4. A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds.2 “¢ One-third of American children””a total of 15 millions””are being raised without a father. Nearly 5 million more live without a
November 6, 2015
The Cup of Thanksgiving
By Victor Knowles “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10:16, 17). If there is ever a time to be truly thankful, it is when we gather around the Lord”s table to remember Jesus Christ. Our Savior instituted the Lord”s Supper during the Passover meal. The third cup in the meal was called “the
August 30, 2012
The Language of Loneliness
By Daniel Schantz “Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, “˜What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”” (Matthew 26:40*). Thomas Wolfe described loneliness as “the central and inevitable experience of every man,” but when we are lonely, we think no one else on earth understands. Loneliness is everywhere, but it wears many disguises. To the teenage girl, loneliness is an overwhelming pressure to be just like her girlfriends, at any cost. To the college student, it”s going home for the summer to find that home has changed. To the housewife, loneliness
October 11, 2011
Rescuing Children at Risk
By Karen Wingate Infomercials, child sponsorship programs, and stirring stories of missionaries like Amy Carmichael and Gladys Aylward give the impression that needy children mostly exist in third world countries. But this is not so. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the United States foster care system serves more than 740,000 children. Beyond that, more than 3 million children in the United States can be labeled as “children of trauma.” Children without hope line our own city streets and fill our forgotten alleys. Thankfully, Christian church ministries are dedicated to offering the transformational power of Jesus Christ to
September 1, 2010
An Incarnational Approach to Mission?
By Ash Barker Some of the most exciting and innovative Christian workers today describe their approach to mission as incarnational. But the term has been used in such diverse and contradictory ways that it is in danger of becoming clichéd, losing any real meaning. This means some will dismiss the incarnational idea before they even consider its important call to sustained faithfulness and relevance in mission. The Same as . . . ? Some people think that because Anji and I moved our family into Klong Toey slum in Bangkok, Thailand, that we are therefore incarnational“”believing we have somehow become
May 25, 2008
Reclaiming Joy in Daily Life
By Victor M. Parachin While running errands one day, Kimberly Kirberger passed two teenagers holding a car wash sign. Her car was dirty, so she pulled over. While waiting in line, Kirberger was curious what motivated nearly 50 teenagers to devote an entire Saturday to washing cars. After her car was washed, she handed the teens a 20-dollar bill and asked what they were raising money for. They explained that a friend of theirs””C.T. Schmitz””had recently died of cancer. He was 15 years old, 6-feet-2, and had a lot of friends, all of whom described him as a “boy sweeter
