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Scripture writing plans are incredibly simple, yet incredibly effective for helping us read, interpret and absorb the Word of God. Rather than simply letting our eyes pass over a verse and perhaps miss its full meaning, writing Scripture down helps us absorb each word and really think through what the passage before us is saying. Each day in October you’ll have the opportunity to write down a verse. We suggest using a journal where you can add any additional mediations or prayers that the verse brings to mind. Click here to download the October Scripture Writing Guide!

There it is, the hollow emptiness of silence. The slight sliding of your hand as pen scratches across a lined journal page. The pressure in your throat as you whisper silent pleas at God. Prayer can mean talking to God and then feeling only a cathartic release. You pray with expectation that God is present, but in a distant-sort-of-way. To a Lord who feels, maybe,  intimidating, and a little aloof, a Lord who turns towards you because it is his duty to turn, not because he wants to. I get it. Praying can feel like a mighty lonely thing then. A desperate, sad affair. Because if we feel God is distant from us, but we pray anyway, it is because we are at the end of our rope and don’t know what else to do. We are in a fix; we are messed up; we need help ...

The world around us is shifting sand. I suppose it always has been, but the past four months have revealed its instability in profound ways. Medical advice and predictions regarding COVID-19 change daily. Businesses have closed, never to re-open, while others struggle to adjust their models to new and ever-changing standards. Neighborhoods near my home “make noise” every night at 7 pm in support of and thanks to first responders, while other groups nearby rally to defund the police. Race-relations are precarious, statues are toppled, and perspectives are evolving. Voices on all sides are deafeningly loud.  It all makes me feel quite unsteady – adrift – and so in my worst moments, I worry.  I worry that this virus will hold us hostage indefinitely – that restrictions will be in pl...

Imagine a corporation needed to train new sales representatives to expand its market. Unfortunately, the company could not bring all the new employees to its headquarters, so it was decided to send out trainers to the various new markets and train the salespeople there.  However, the trainers all had different ideas about what the corporate philosophy and sales methods were! The new salespeople were all taught different things! What confusion! A similar difference in teaching has occurred in the various Christian churches, each of which has its own understanding of what the true gospel is. Some say it is “the gospel of grace.” Others call their version “the gospel of salvation” or “the gospel of Christ.” To others, it is “the gospel of GodR...

The word “pandemic” should send shivers down our spines. Worldwide disease epidemics are on the rise, and several authorities are predicting outbreaks of some diseases medical science thought they had all but eradicated. For us, however, it is not surprising. Jesus Christ plainly prophesied that pestilence of major proportions would arise in the last days (Matthew 24:7). The last of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, pestilence is a pale, or greenish-yellow, the horse was ridden by a being called Death. Hades, or the grave, follows after. They are given the power to kill one-quarter of the earth’s population by means of war, famine, plague, and beasts (Revelation 6:7-8). It presents a striking scenario: War often causes famine. Malnutrition and starvation breed disease,...

When Chris Caldwell thinks about student housing and food services, his pondering goes deeper than the mere campus amenities that concern administrators at most colleges. “We have many students who are insecure in terms of their housing, and we have significant problems with food insecurity,” said Caldwell, vice president for academic affairs at Simmons College of Kentucky. At Simmons, a historically Black institution in Louisville, it is not uncommon to hear of students sleeping in their cars, he noted. “We try to do everything we can to try to help with those situations.” Some students are single parents, so the housing situation for them is even more complex. Since Simmons has limited college-owned housing, it looks to various community resources to aid students in their search for a de...

Christian Persecution A new report from the Center for Studies on New Religion’s publication Bitter Winter reveals China is spying on and censoring any religious teacher to make sure they don’t mention God. The Center for Studies on New Religion, a human rights organization focusing on abuses by the Chinese Communist Party’s regime, published the report in an effort to help end the crackdown. According to the report, Chinese authorities will monitor teachers and make sure they refrain from mentioning anything about democracy, freedom, religion,or God. The report also says that religious teachers are already considered a threat to the Chinese Communist Party simply because they are religious, regardless of what they have taught. The report cites complaints from multiple te...

I didn’t know it was true. For me. For my mind and heart and story. I didn’t know what it felt like to experience a new outlook, to receive a different lens for the same life I’ve always lived. Two weeks ago, I spent an hour a day letting God direct my attention to my past, to my childhood. I sat at his feet and surrendered, the best I could, my mind and heart. I gave him my imagination, and He showed me images of experiences I had forgotten. He put me back into the story of my childhood–after I was born, when I was born, and before I was born. It was learning God’s delight in my existence before I was given to my parents, placed in my mother’s womb, that changed how I view my life. It underscores the way I see my past and present–and my ideas for my future, too.  I didn’t know I was ...

What’s It Like to Abort Your Own Child? If you are asking “Will I be forgiven for the abortion I had?” then you already feel the guilt of your sin. Perhaps you feel your guilt afresh as a result of the videos exposing the work of Planned Parenthood. What do you do with your guilt? One young man I met on the street a few years ago knew this guilt. He had grown up in an evangelical Christian home. About twenty years old, he had rejected the God of the Bible and argued vehemently with me against the Lord’s very existence. Our discussion somehow moved to the moral argument for God. Why is murder wrong? What about abortion? At that point, most unexpectedly, the hardened young man burst into tears. He buried his head in his hands and blurted out, “I don’t need any God to know abortion is w...

As a child, I lived in a small coastal town where the summer days took on rhythms.  Typically, the summer days would start out gray, cold, and with fog enveloping the small town in its soft, airy fleece. By 10 am the blue skies broke through the clouds and gave way to sunny days and warm temperatures.  This cycle would occur day after day.  We would usually have at least 4-6 solid hours, before the heat from the interior valley would pull the fog back to blanket our small home once again. Those carefree mornings invited me to ride bikes with my brothers and play dolls with my sister; we would watch the sky for the first hint of robin egg blue.  Once the first glimpse came, we excitedly shed our sweatshirts and allowed the warming rays of the sun to drive away the chill ...