Busyness has become a coveted status symbol in our time. It's now chic and trendy to be busy. Busy has become the default response to the customary "How are you doing?" question. I suspect we talk about busyness so much because it gives us some...
Johann Arndt (1555-1621) labored in obscurity in a small church in Germany. When his book True Christianity was published, he became something of a celebrity. His book was widely circulated throughout Europe, and some reformed colleagues became...
Gerhard Tersteegen (1697-1769) qualifies as a holy man. He lived in a small town along the Rhine River in Germany, eking out a modest living as a weaver. His only visitor was a girl who came daily to wind silk thread for him. He was, for five...
It was Easter 1695, and August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) gathered the money that was left in the church collection boxes. He counted seven guldens, the equivalent of $2.80. He said to himself, "I will build a school for the poor with it." He...
When I first came upon Betty Stam's (1906-1934) prayer, it seemed too good to be true. I was put in my place when I learned the real story of Betty's life and her willingness to put this prayer to the ultimate test. Betty grew up in China, where...
Conversion stories fascinate me. Paul was knocked off his horse by a blinding vision on his way to persecute Christians. Lydia, the first convert in Asia, opened her heart to Christ after listening to Paul's testimony. Augustine came to faith after...
Anne Lamott (1954-) was a thirty-year-old moderately successful fiction writer who worked an assortment of odd jobs to pay the rent. She was also a down-and-out drunk with an eating disorder. She was walking one Sunday morning through a flea market...
Michel Quoist (1921-1997) was born into a working-class Catholic family in France. He went to work at age fourteen after his father's death and later returned to school to become a Catholic priest. His first assignment was working with youth in a...
Thomas De Witt (T. T.) Talmage (1832-1902) accepted a call to pastor a church in Brooklyn, New York, in 1869. His offer letter was signed by seventeen people, the total number of members of this dying urban church. He preached to a cavernous...
Charles How (1661-1742) served as a courtier in King Charles II's court, nicknamed the "Merry Monarch" for his pleasure-seeking approach to the English throne. When Charles II died, his brother, King James II, took over and assigned the courtier...
John Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was nominated for a promotion as a professor at Princeton Seminary in 1926, having taught New Testament there for twenty years. Back in the day, faculty promotions required the approval of the General Assembly, the...
As my wife Chris and I were traveling recently on Interstate 95 through Baltimore late one evening, we observed a new, seven-story illuminated cross mounted on St. Agnes Hospital, prominent against the city skyline. A short while later, as we drove...
Charles Henry Brent (1862-1929) was given two hard assignments in ministry as an Episcopal priest. First, the bishop sent him to reopen an abandoned church in the poorest section of Boston's South End. After he successfully revitalized the church,...
Tornados are rated zero to five on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale. A level five tornado is the strongest, with winds exceeding two hundred miles per hour that can level homes, hurl automobiles through the air, and cause significant damage to...
We live in anxious times. The rise of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GA.D.) has become acute among the under-eighteen crowd. Colleges report an exponential increase in students showing up at medical clinics and counseling centers suffering from all...
Professor Howard Hendricks said that every Christian needs a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy in their lives. A Paul--to serve as a mentor and role model, a Barnabas--to come alongside to offer encouragement, and a Timothy--someone in whom we can...
In 1878, Inventor Thomas Edison spoke the first words ever to be recorded into a phonograph. The words he chose to be immortalized in that initial recording originated from a popular children's poem of the time, "Mary had a little lamb, whose...
Ludwig Beethoven began to lose his hearing in 1798. This was devastating to a musical composer of Beethoven's stature, as he could no longer hear the music he was creating for appreciative audiences. His encroaching deafness assaulted his...