Where will your anchor be during the storms of life? Powerful storms were nothing new for the Sea of Galilee. Actually the Sea of Galilee is an inland lake about six miles wide and twelve miles long. The sea is positioned several hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea and is known for…

Happiness In Matthew 5, Jesus begins a sentence with the same words, “Blessed are...” eight different times. What does it mean to be blessed? It is a religious sounding word, isn’t it? It is pregnant with virtue–a stained glass sort of a word. The truth is, the Greek word simply means happy. In English,…

The motion picture “Faith Like Potatoes” tells the true story of Angus Buchan, a South African farmer who learns what true faith really is. Angus comes to South Africa in the middle of racial turmoil and economic disruption to begin a new life for himself and his family. The hard work of reclaiming an…

I saw one the other day who was about to suffer from the surgeon’s knife. It was a serious operation, about which all stood in doubt, but I was happy to see her as composed in the prospect of it as though it had been a pleasure rather than a pain. Thus calmly resigned should a Christian be. How many…

Adversity comes to those who are making a difference for Christ. Missionary statesman Oswald Chambers once wrote, “Suffering is the heritage of the bad, of the penitent, and of the Son of God. Each one ends at the Cross. The bad thief is crucified, the penitent thief is crucified, and the Son of God…

We are sometimes apt to think that a charge that is unfounded is very cruel to us. I have heard people say sometimes, and I have laughed when I have heard them say it, “Mr. So-and-so has charged me with such-and-such a thing, but I am quite innocent. I should not have minded if I had been guilty.” I…

When John Philpot, the martyr, was addressing a young man about to die for Christ, he said to him, “Brother, you are a vessel in the great house of your Master, and this day he will scour you, scour you hard, but remember you will soon stand upon the shelf, shining bright and glorious.” Sometimes pains,…

There was a crest and motto that some of the old Reformers used to use, and that I commend to any of you who are under trial. It was an anvil with a number of hammers, all broken, lying around; and this was the motto when translated, “The anvil breaks many hammers.” And how does it do this? Not by striking:…

STRENGTH The threat of war is having a positive impact on soldiers preparing for a possible conflict with Iraq. On a recent Sunday morning, eight young men approached the altar in a canvas church, received blessings from a chaplain, and were baptized in a freshly dug pool. They emerged to applause from…

Life is Beautiful is a film about a man and his son captured by Nazis to a concentration camp. The father tried his best to entertain his son so that the boy would not realize their situation. He showed his love by keeping his son happy in the camp until he was taken away to be executed. Love is not…

PERSISTENCE/PAIN On August 19, 2003, 15-game-winner, Mark Mulder left the mound against The Boston Red Sox with a stress fracture in his hip. And when he did, the hopes of a 4th straight playoff bid for the Oakland Athletics left with him—or so the pundits said. Even with their usual push toward the…

Had Abraham stopped in Ur of the Chaldees with his friends and rested there and enjoyed himself, where would his faith have been? He had God’s command to leave his country to go to a land that he had never seen, to sojourn there with God as a stranger, dwelling in tents, and in his obedience to that…

The man that has seen affliction, when he is blessed of God, has the disposition to cheer those that are afflicted. I have heard speak of a lady who was out in the snow one night, and was so very cold that she cried out, “Oh, those poor people that have such a little money! How little fuel they have,…

Sometimes comfort needs to be more than words. “The New York Times reports that touch is its own complicated, highly accurate, highly effective signaling system.” They interpret that to mean that high fives and sympathetic touches can say more than words. --Reader’s Digest, May 2010, p24 Illustration…

In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship.” —Jim L. Wilson Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 91. Philippians 3:10 (HCSB) My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed…

A tree of common fruit may be let alone so long as there is some little fruit on it, but the very best fruit gets the sharpest pruning. I have noticed that in those countries where the best wine is made, the vinedressers cut the shoots right close in, and in the winter you cannot tell that there is a…

RESTORATION Donna grew in a Christian home in South Carolina. She went to church beginning in nursery school. In high school and her early college year she devoted herself to Christian youth groups, and even served as a summer missionary teaching the Bible to young people from 50 churches. In her later…

Hardships For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. [7] Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward. (Job 5:6-7 NIV) I'd like to think that calamity will visit everyone but me, but I know it isn't true. Calamity will visit your home, and it will…

In THANKS! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D. writes, “Thankfulness to God often occurs not only within the shadow of suffering, but also, paradoxically, is made possible through it.” —Jim L. Wilson —THANKS!, 116 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (HCSB) “Give thanks in everything,…

In the olden time when the gospel was preached in Persia, Hamedatha, a courtier of the king, having embraced the faith, was stripped of all his offices, driven from the palace, and compelled to feed camels. This he did with great content. The king passing by one day saw his former favorite at his ignoble…

Could it be true that Mike Tyson has finally realized his shortcomings? After his four-year-old daughter died in a treadmill accident, Tyson was emotionally touched by the people who reached out to help him. He realized “The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. I thought I was…

Chinese pastor Samuel Lamb summarized his life and ministry: “more persecution, more growth.” Lamb was imprisoned in 1958 for refusing to register his house church with the government. Sentenced to 20 years of hard labor, he spent two decades working in the coalmines. He used the time to teach Christianity…

I have heard of a woman who was condemned to death in the Marian days. Before her time came to be burned a child was born to her, and she cried out in her sorrow. A wicked adversary who stood by said, “How will you bear to die for your religion if you make such ado?” “Ah,” she said, “Now I suffer in…

For those who saw replays of the pitch, it is unforgettable. Pitching for the Giants and leading 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Dave Dravecky delivered his 69th pitch of the night. It was the last pitch he would ever make with that left arm. The bone broke in mid pitch and he fell to the ground…

When a man has been drowning, I have heard that his sensations have often been very pleasant. But when the circulation of the blood commences again, pain begins at once. And the more pain he suffers, the more surely is he being restored to life. It is just so with the spiritual blood that is circulating…