By David Bechtel On Thursday, August 16th, 2018, the world lost one of its great voices, the “Queen of Soul”—Aretha Franklin. She was perhaps best known for her recording of the song “Respect.” But, perhaps few know that the song was originally written by a man—Otis Redding. Redding wrote and released the hit song “Respect”

By Shawn Lazar Do you know how to pray? Are you making progress in your prayer life? Do you find that your prayers have become repetitive, dry, and boring? I find I need help to pray. Do you? Martin Luther’s barber once asked for advice on how to pray to God. So Luther wrote him

By Shawn Lazar Do you know how to pray? Are you making progress in your prayer life? Do you find that your prayers have become repetitive, dry, and boring? I find I need help to pray. Do you? Martin Luther’s barber once asked for advice on how to pray to God. So Luther wrote him

  By Bob Wilkin In a recent blog, I indicated that there are over 100 passages in the Bible which say that the one and only condition of everlasting life is believing in Jesus. That led to an email from one of our blog readers: I have known that for a long time, but it

  By Ken Yates Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection…others had trial of mockings and scourgings…and imprisonment…were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute…of whom the world was not worthy (Heb 11:35-39). Legacy

By James Morison (1816-1893) Some of our older theologians—inclusive of many of the “Marrow-men”—spoke much of the appropriating act of faith. It was this act which they supposed to be saving. “In the direct act of saving faith,” says Anderson, “a person appropriates Christ crucified to himself, saying with the heart, I am verily persuaded

By Marcia Hornok Making Assumptions While the Bible has no bloopers, the way we visualize the written Word might. For example, when Joseph’s eleven brothers came to him, we picture Benjamin as a youth because he was the youngest. However, shortly thereafter, all seventy members of Jacob’s family moved to Egypt, and the name list

By Bill Fiess In 1 Tim 6:12 Paul writes, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Why does Paul call it the good fight of the faith? And to what is he referring

By Josh Meier Permanent state or Temporary circumstance? Someone once said, “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” The difference is thinking of poverty as an intrinsic quality versus thinking of it as a temporary circumstance. While that attitude may have

By Nate Stevens School Spirit I enjoyed spirit week at my high school, just like every other kid does across America. Our rival was Lawrenceville, a grotesque place just across the New Jersey state line, so we had more than the typical rival history between us. Their school colors were red and white, ours blue

By Randy White Somewhere in the past 40 years “Purpose” has become our god. I suppose Rick Warren revealed this god more than he invented it in his wildly successful book, The Purpose Driven Life. Somewhere, having Purpose (yes, I’m capitalizing it on purpose, since it has taken on a god-like status) became a “must

By Allen Rea On April 23, 2018, after fighting her disease for a very long time, my mother died. The woman that gave birth to me, that cooked me many meals, that loved and supported my every action, left this world. It has been said that when one loses a parent, he loses a part

By Charlie McCall Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? (Heb 12:7). A summer staff worker whom I was disciplining made two statements to me. The first was in anger, and I expected it: “You don’t have any right to

By Bob Wilkin Kept for Jesus: What the New Testament Really Teaches about Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Security. By Sam Storms. Wheaton, IL:Crossway, 2015. 203 pp. Paper, $15.99. Sam Storms graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1977, the year before I began. While we did not overlap, I have long known of him. He