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 say experts President-elect Joe Biden speaking in Gettysburg, Pa., on Oct. 7, 2020 Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, states it is safe to assume that the incoming president’s initial energies will be internally focused due to the coronavirus and the economy. In addressing the Mideast, the priority is likely to focus on Iran and the nuclear deal, followed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (November 9, 2020) U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s yet-to-be-confirmed victory over incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump has ushered in a flurry of questions in Israel over what a Biden-Harris administration would look like and how it would differ from the Obama administration specifically with regard to Israel. Eytan Gilboa, an expert o...

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11 (NIV) I could tell you my story as a tale of woeHighlighting trauma from ages ago I could tell you my story as a tale of fearOf barely subsisting in a world so drear I could tell you my story as a tale of despairRecounting loss that seems more than my share But instead I will tell you my story of graceHow Jesus came in with a loving embrace And I will recount my story of hopeHow Jesus provided the strength to cope I want you to hear my redemption storyHow Jesus healed me and received His due glory For no story’s worthwhile that ends in deathWe need resurrection and God’s holy breath Linda L. Kruschke is the author of ...

I had heard God tell me to go deeper. I had heard him say this for years. I believed him; at least I believed in the value of the idea. But what I didn’t know is what it meant, not really. And I also didn’t know that the outcome of going deeper is an experience, an inhabitance of a place that has always been within me. A place real. A place tangible. But a place not so easily explained with words.  I will try.  So here is some context. After my abortion when I was sixteen, the day I told my parents I was going to the mall in Sacramento to return gifts I received for Christmas, I continued to have sex; I continued to have physical relationships with guys. I was not upset about my decision to have the abortion. I did not regret what I had done. Rather, I buried the experience insid...

It was dark. The silence was deafening. Nothingness. It was my eighth consecutive night of virtually no sleep. Only my thoughts surrounded me. I had cried so much that there were no tears left. The mourning was still in my heart, but the tears wouldn’t flow. God, where are you? Do you hear me? Do you even care? I would love to tell you that that night was long ago, when I wasn’t saved, didn’t pray regularly, or read my Bible. It wasn’t. The truth is, I’ve had many days or nights like that one. There have been days when my prayers seemed to go unanswered, weeks and months where God’s voice was silent, and His prompting uncertain. My Christian journey has been filled with highs and lows. There have been times of unspeakable joy where God’s hand was so evident upon my life that no one could d...

My mother was a seamstress. It was a joy in her life, something that made her proud but also made her happy. That she enjoyed creating beautiful creations was something that always resonated with me.  It’s like my mom always had this mentality – creating beauty where few could see it and then hearing the praise because of her creations; she was a visionary – she saw it all along. Whenever my mother sewed, the first thing she started with was a pattern. The pattern provided directions for cutting each piece, sizing, and stitching with the finished garment in mind. I found it intriguing, for I never imagined that a sleeve, for example, in a pattern could look so different than what I typically viewed as a sleeve. But as I watched her work, it made sense. She would clea...

Do you not know? Have you not heard? It was 1995, I was sixteen years old, and I thought I did know and I had heard. I’d grown up in the church: sang the songs, memorized the verses, assembled the Vacation Bible School crafts. So when I opened the devotional booklet during the “quiet time” set aside for Scripture reflection on the last morning of the high school youth group retreat, I didn’t expect to learn anything new. Yeah, I do, I thought as I read the words of Isaiah 40:28. I have.  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. This is exactly what I thought I knew. God. The Lord. The Everlasting. The Creator. Sure. That all made sense. Some big, powerful guy who sat up in the heavens and waved his hands when it came time to invent rhinoceroses and starfi...

All Souls to the Polls Contentious, high-stakes elections are nothing new to Darryl Warren Aaron or his members at Providence Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C. But there is a different feel surrounding the 2020 general election, said the pastor of the city’s oldest Black congregation. “It takes me back to when (President Barack) Obama ran the first time. There’s an energy. There’s a drive. It feels existential, as if people are recognizing that there’s power in the vote.” In an effort to share that passion, Providence Baptist and other congregations in North Carolina and additional battleground states have partnered with civic and social justice groups to drive transportation-challenged voters to the polls during early voting periods and on Election Day. And with guidance and funding from...

Students outside Moody Bible Institute The review follows a student petition that claimed the Chicago school mishandled reports of sexual misconduct, abuse, and stalking Moody Bible Institute in Chicago has promised a third-party investigation and other steps in response to a petition claiming the school mishandled complaints of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse for decades. The petition, launched Oct. 16 on Change.org, has more than 3,100 signatures and several comments from MBI students and alumni. They claim that after they reported abuse or harassment, school leaders did not inform them of their rights, discouraged them from filing Title IX claims, or disciplined them. Title IX, a civil rights law, requires schools to investigate and respond to sexual misconduct. Most of the petiti...

French officials said an investigation was underway into a terrorist attack Authorities are investigating a deadly knife attack in the French city of Nice as a terrorist incident. Following the third attack in two months attributed to Muslim extremists, France raised its alert level to urgent. Evangelicals pray for peace after three were killed at a Catholic church in Nice, the third incident in recent months attributed to Muslim extremists. What do we know about the attack? The attack took place Thursday morning at the Notre Dame Basilica in the heart of the Mediterranean city. Terrorism investigators said the suspect entered the church and waited a half-hour before cutting the throat of the custodian, then nearly decapitating an elderly woman and stabbing a third woman, who escaped the c...

My phone vibrates on the table near my bed, and  I grab it quickly and shut it off. It’s one of those misty California Bay Area mornings–gray blanket thrown gently across quiet sky. Everything feels quiet. I picture God tucking me in still, even as I stretch my arms, rising slowly out of bed. I know every creak in the beams of this old bungalow, 100 years old. So, my steps into the kitchen are careful, ginger. The rest of the house still sleeps. The stillness is tangible–so amazing and beautiful and rare I can hardly believe it. I coax my noisy, excited dog out the back door and sit on the couch in the family room, right off the kitchen. This is sacred. Oh, God, thank you. I sit for a while, breathing in the beauty of this space–and then I lie down on the couch. Oh, I want t...

Self-care often gets conflicting responses in Christian circles. On one hand, Jesus called us to die to ourselves. We’re to be crucified with Christ so that we no longer live but Christ lives in us. The selfless call for the Christian seems at odds with self-care. But Jesus also commanded us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. When our own soul is well nurtured, we can love others well. The balance comes in self-care, rather than self-indulgence or self-obsession. And self-care in grief and difficulty is especially important because the stress and intensity of those seasons can deplete us. It takes everything in us to process grueling emotions, to face unknowns and the unexpected and to continue to show up well for our family. Grief and deep disappointment can wr...

his past summer, most mornings I waited and watched as the sun made its slow ascent over the hill behind our farm, streaming light through the enormous Douglas firs of our forest and illuminating my little corner of the world with its warmth. Sunrise and Coffee became part of the liturgy of my summer days.  One of the common graces God gives to all His creation is the dependable daily rising and setting of the sun. In every corner of the world, no matter the time of year, it is known which minute of the day these commonplace events will occur. Darkness and light are daily reminders of God’s faithfulness to us.  On Tuesday, September 8th, Oregonians awoke to our state ablaze. Fires had raged all night, and on this morning it seemed the sun would not rise. By 9 am we were still in ...