Three Zen Buddhist monks stopped on their journey to rest. One of the monks saw a flag and said, "Oh, What a strong wind blowing!” The second monk argued that it was not the wind blowing but the flag flying. The third monk contended that neither the wind was blowing nor the flag flying, but their minds…

Until the time of our death, we live, sometimes even if we don’t want to. Vangelis Kapatos, a 26-year-old New York City man, decided he didn’t want to live anymore. He jumped from a ninth-story window to kill himself. It must not have been his time. He landed on his back in a pile of uncollected garbage…

The events of December 7, 1941 changed the world forever. That day also marked the beginning of a change for one of the men who attacked Pearl Harbor. Mitsuo Fuchida was hand selected by Admiral Yamamoto to lead the Japanese attack, and took great pride in the devastation his forces inflicted. Fuchida…

SPIRITUAL WARFARE In his book, "The Barbarian Way", Erwin McManus suggests that believers need to rethink what it means to be born again. He writes, "When we are born again, we are dropped not into a maternity ward, but into war zone. Our birthplace is less mother's womb and more battlefield earth."…

God's Autograph in the Sky Have you ever watched children build a "castle" out of Lego blocks? They don't develop architectural drawings or do structural analysis, instead, they just start sticking blocks together. On rare occasions, they cooperate, usually the play time ends when one child gets frustrated…

Suppose you had been a pig all your life, and that you were suddenly made into a man. Well, now you are a man, you look through a telescope; swine cannot do that. You look through a microscope; I never knew a pig do that in my life. Swine do not talk, but you speak, you sing, you pray, you are quite…

FORGIVENESS A Grinch of sorts was busy in South Florida this past holiday season. On Christmas Eve, Ron and Helen Meijer found a ransom note in their front-lawn nativity scene. The plastic baby Jesus had been kidnapped. The kidnappers did not demand money. Instead, they made a demand the Meijers refused…

In his autobiography, Pat Summerall the former player and broadcaster tells of becoming a born again Christian during his treatment for alcoholism at the Betty Ford rehab clinic. The message of the Gospel is changed lives in the grace God gives in Jesus Christ. --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell World,…

Walt In 1976, Walt Arnold' s ministry was featured at the Southern Baptist Convention in Norfolk, Virginia. No, Arnold wasn't a preacher. Far from it. He was a Rodeo Cowboy-as close a thing to a celebrity we had in Silverton, Texas. He was one of the finest horse trainers in the area, but his claim to…

The motion picture, City of Ember, provides an interesting look at the end of the world. With civilization on the brink of destruction, scientists construct an underground city named Ember to ensure the survival of the human race. To make the citizens of the city safer, they decide the residents must…

Gary Paxton wrote over 2,000 songs. The two best-known songs from the 1950’s were “Alley-Oop” and “Monster Mash.” All the time he was writing he struggled with a tumultuous personal life. He made and lost a fortune, overcame addiction, and was once gravely wounded when a disgruntled singer hired hit…

When the Moravian missionaries first went to Greenland, they were months and months teaching the poor Greenlander about the Godhead, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the doctrine of sin and the law, and no converts were forthcoming. But one day, by accident, one of the Greenlanders happened to read that…

PORNOGRAPHY Steve Fetrow, a respected spiritual leader, resigned his position as a youth pastor in 1997 due in part to his use of pornography. Fetrow isn't alone. According to a recent study commissioned by Focus on the Family, there is no statistical difference between the number of Christians and the…

ETERNAL LIFE Biotechnologists in Iceland report they advanced the search for the secret to eternal life after locating the gene responsible for healthy old age. The gene has been named the Methuselah gene after the Old Testament figure who lived for 969 years. Scientists pinpointed the gene using Iceland’s…

CHANCE Does fortune really smile on a select few people? What role does luck or chance play in our lives? The experience of a Wisconsin church suggests there are no such things as either luck or chance, but that God is involved in everything that happens. In August 1992, a tornado swept through a small…

Rosaria Butterfield was once a lesbian leftist college professor. She is the author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. In explaining her life transition, Rosaria Butterfield talks about the authority of the Bible. After accepting Christ and leaving her lesbian lifestyle, she wrestled with…

For 100 days in 1994 Rwanda was a killing field. Saveri Nemeye was one of the aggressors. With a machete he brutally killed Rosaria Bankundiye’s husband and their four children. Released from prison in 2004, Saveri went to Rosaria and begged for forgiveness. Rosaria considered his request and then granted…

SALVATION "Actions," the saying goes, "speak louder than words." Ungodly actions can muffle the sounds of righteous words. That's what happened in Stephanie's home. Stephanie grew up in church and regularly heard the claims of the gospel, but never experienced a life transformation until she was eighteen.…

GOSPEL Philippe Martinez thought his mountain climbing days were over. He had been a mountain guide since 1981, but had since followed God's call to become a pastor. At the age of 52, a friend asked Martinez to lead a French Expedition to the summit of Mount Everest. Though he resisted the idea at first,…

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a story set during WWII about a poor German family. While the book is a beautiful picture of the tenacity of life, the narrator of the book is Death. He writes, From Death's Diary: 1942 A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH I do not carry a sickle or scythe. I only wear a hooded black…

Magdalena is a tortoise hatched in Zilina, Slovakia. Magdalena is actually two tortoises, Magda and Lena, at least they are two heads on one tortoise. Each head has its own brain and nerve system that causes quite a problem. It is a tortoise divided against itself. “The second head sometimes doesn’t…

The law ceases its office as pedagogue when it comes to be written on our hearts. Boys have their lessons on slates, but men have their laws in their minds. We trust a man where we would carefully watch a boy. When the child becomes a man, his father and mother do not write down little rules for him,…

Alan Sinclair does not want his death to be permanent. After he dies, his blood will be flushed from his body and replaced with antifreeze. Technicians will then cool the body with dry ice and fly it to a cryonics center in Michigan. The center will keep it at minus 320 degrees. When a solution is found…

TRANSFORMATION “We [churches] are in the business to do ministry to facilitate transformation …that is the only reason we exist.” —George Barna, 11-6-2000, Barna 2000-2001 Seminars, San Jose, California Illustration by Jim L. Wilson For more information on Barna’s seminars and other resources, go to…

LIFE In this email to his former pastor in California, a Naval Officer expresses what facing danger and death is teaching him about life. “Here in Norfolk, it was certainly a hollow feeling that we experienced when the Cole was attacked. Just two months prior to the attack, the Cole was at the next pier…