In 2009, a high school girl named Wanetta Gibson falsely accused a High school football star named Brian Banks of rape. That accusation caused the loss of several college scholarships and a five years sentence when he could have played college football. The future after than we will never know, for he…

Galatians 6:1 does not mean that we are to spy out our brother’s faults. There is a story of John Wesley going several times to a certain town where he thought that there was a band of earnest Christian people. But he was met by a brother who told him how dead they all were, what little life there was…

MOTHERS None of us could put a value on what our mother has taught us or for the nurture that she's provided for us. But Salary.com recently rated her monetary worth based upon the top ten jobs in a stay-a-home-Mom's job description. They valued her contribution to the family to be $134,121.00 annually.…

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…

During a sermon about Christian unity, Florida pastor Zach Zehnder spoke about rules that tend to divide Christians — drinking, smoking, and getting tattoos. In an offhanded remark, he told his assembled congregants during a sermon that he would pay them to get tattoos of the church’s colorful cross…

| In my experience, signs follow decisions. The way you overcome spiritual inertia and produce spiritual momentum is by making tough decisions. And the tougher the decision, the more potential momentum it will produce. The primary reason most of us don't see God moving is simply because we aren't moving.…

Sharon Standifird served her country in the Gulf War, climbed mountains, and took care of her family, yet she found she didn’t get the respect she deserved from her children. When she would try to call them on their cell phones, her children choose to “Ignore” her calls. Rather than getting mad, Standifird…

PREPARATION In their book, The Sacred Romance, Curtis & Eldredge write, “The life of the heart is a place of great mystery. Yet we have many expressions to help us express this flame of the human soul. We describe a person without compassion as “heartless,” and we urge him or her to “have a heart.” Our…

I have heard of a man who had a dream in which he thought he stood at the gates of heaven, and his wife with him. She went in, but the porter shut him out, saying, “The other day you said to your wife, ‘You may go to church and pray for us both.’ Now she shall go to heaven for you both, and you must…

When a Georgia bank teller accidentally posted a customer’s $31,000 deposit to the wrong account, the teenager who received the money by mistake immediately began a huge spending spree. Records show the names on the account were the same, and the teller apparently did not double check the account numbers…

Esau couldn’t take responsibility for his own problems so he blamed them on Jacob. Of course Jacob wasn’t innocent, but Esau was as responsible as Jacob, or more so. It is a common failing among humans. Rather than take responsibility for our lives, we blame the poor conditions on someone else. Tara…

While Ronald Reagan was president, a thirteen year-old boy sent him a letter requesting disaster relief funds because his mother asked him to clean his room. Recently, an Internet blogger rediscovered the letter and reposted it. In the original request, seventh grader Andy Smith from South Carolina wrote,…

In the night skies there had long been observed bright masses of light. The astronomers supposed them to be stores of unfashioned chaotic matter—until William Herschel’s telescope resolved them into distinct stars. What the telescope did for stars, the religion of Christ, when received into the heart,…

MISTAKES After the city crew accidentally demolished a five-car garage, Linda Stango, the Community Development Commissioner for Rochester, N.Y. said, “We just misidentified which building it was.” —NEWSWEEK, September 22, 2003, p. 21 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson My grandfather taught me to measure…

OPPORTUNITY Ashley Smith gained nationwide fame when the Atlanta shooting suspect held her captive in her own home. Smith softened her captor's heart by reading him selections from the book, The Purpose Driven Life, and telling the fugitive that God had a plan for his life. Now Smith will have the opportunity…

Joaquín García, was a Spanish civil servant whose job was to oversee the construction of a water plant in Cádiz in 2004. He decided in 2010 the job was beneath him and so he stayed home to read philosophy. However, he did keep collecting his $41,500 salary. This year city officials recognized him with…

Two years ago, John Brandick, a 62-year-old British man, was told he would succumb to pancreatic cancer within a year. Thinking he only had that single year to live, he decided to get the most out of what life he had left. He quit his job, quit paying his mortgage, and used his savings to give gifts…

NEIGHBOR The man who was first to climb Mount Everest says he is concerned about the attitude of climbers today. Sir Edmund Hillary who reached the summit of the world's highest mountain in 1953, said he was shocked that dozens of climbers left a British mountaineer to die during their recent attempts…

Walmart told one of their greeters to stop telling customers to “have a blessed day” after someone complained. However, hundreds of other customers showed enough support to get the store to change the decision. The manager of the store admitted that he told James Phillips to stop the greeting, but said…

BLAMEGUILTRESPONSIBILITY What does a bagel, or even broken teeth, for that matter, have to do with losing the care, comfort, consortium and society of a spouse? Frankly, I don’t have a clue, but John and Cecelia O'Hare filed suit against a McDonald’s restaurant claiming that a bagel broke John’s teeth…

Technology provides ways to keep track of tasks, but some people still cling to old fashioned ways. One of those people is 24-year-old Claira Hart, who uses an online project management app to communicate with coworkers across the country, but prefers a pen and paper to keep track of her to-do list.…

For 20 years, people have been sticking their gum to the walls of an alley by Seattle’s Pike Place market. The market estimates that there are as many as one million pieces of gum on the wall. The “gum wall” as it is known, has become a popular landmark, and people have left pictures, cards and other…

EVANGELISM No, this isn’t a Seinfeld episode—it is real life. The U.S. Postal Service in a surprise audit discovered that some local managers temporarily stashed unprocessed mail in parked trailers so that the letters and packages so supervisors wouldn't notice it as delayed. Auditors found millions…

CHOSEN Paul Herold is trying his best not to be elected to the City Council of Blaine, Minnesota. He entered the primary several months ago, but then found a new job that will not leave him enough time to properly serve his constituents. He missed the deadline for removing his name from the ballot, so…

Illustration: Some years ago, David Robinson, who plays basketball in San Antonio, visited our church. He's not a member of our church, but he shows up occasionally. You can imagine the stir that occurred when that striking fellow walked into the auditorium. We have two worship services, and he came…