“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16) My pastor once lamented from the pulpit that prayer was losing its appeal among Christians. It’s a sad commentary, but I agree with him. My own Christian experience has convinced me that a lot of Christians do not avail themselves of the power and privilege of prayer. Stop and think about it. How often do you see a […]

“Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.” (Proverbs 14: 10) There is an old saying, “Anger does more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than the object over which it is poured.” I think the same thing could be said about bitterness. While bitterness is not a Christian quality, it is a common quality among Christians. In fact, our bitter attitudes often turn Christians away from God instead of towards Him. I mean who in the world could […]

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17) In 1981, a Jewish Rabbi wrote a penetrating book, Why Bad Things Happen To Good People. Rabbi Harold Kushner looked at suffering through the life of his son, who was diagnosed with progeria, a childhood disease which sees a child age by decades in just a few years. Kushner, like most of […]

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Two years ago, my church had a 24-hour prayer vigil. Church members volunteered for specific times and the church stayed open all night long. There wasn’t a minute that lapsed during that 24-hour period when someone wasn’t at church praying. It’s funny how God can and will bless the time that we spend serving Him, even when we didn’t really care to do it. You see, I really didn’t want to […]