The difference between Jesus' holiness ethic and that of the Pharisees is this: the Pharisees refuse to touch any unclean thing. Jesus aims to make the unclean holy.

In his book An Unstoppable Force, Erwin McManus shares the story of how prayers resulted in what can only be called a miraculous re-creation.

While ministering in South Dallas, McManus's small congregation began to grow. Looking for a place to build a larger church building, the leadership spotted an acre of land for sale. Given its location near downtown Dallas, it seemed strange that the property ...

I saw a sign on a strip of highway once that I would like to have copied on my gravestone. It said, "End of construction. Thank you for your patience."

—Ruth Bell Graham, poet, writer, and wife of evangelist Billy Graham (1920–2007)

The do-it-yourself, self-help culture of North America has so thoroughly permeated our imaginations that we don't give much sustained attention to the biggest thing of all: resurrection. And the reason we don't give much attention to it is because the Resurrection is not something we can use or manipulate or control or improve on. It is interesting that the world has had very little success in commercializing ...

A priest was coming back to his rectory one evening in the dark when he was accosted by a robber who pulled a gun on him and demanded, "Your money or your life!"

As the priest reached his hand into his coat pocket, the robber saw his Roman collar and said: "I see you're a priest. Never mind, you can go."

The priest, surprised at this unexpected show of piety, tried to reciprocate by offering the robber ...

Victoria Ruvolo, 45, of Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, was selected as the "Most Inspiring Person of 2005" by Beliefnet, and for good reason. Victoria was driving to her niece's voice recital when she passed another car driven by 19-year-old Ryan Cushing. Cushing was riding with five other teens, and had just used a stolen credit card to go on a spending spree. One of their purchases was a frozen turkey, ...

Clean House is the name for a new show on the Style Channel where experts in cleaning, organizing, remodeling, and painting sweep into a cluttered home with the purpose of leaving it more comfortable, attractive, and livable. The experts face the challenges of clothes strewn across the floor, bulging cabinets, closets filled from top to bottom, filled counter tops, and overflowing kitchens, bedrooms, ...

Death Valley may no longer deserve its name. Normally the hottest and driest place in North America, this desert area in California has experienced the wettest year in a century. As a result, colorful wild flowers are in bloom. “Vast fields of desert gold poppy, Eschscholzia glyptosperma, desert star, Monoptilon bellioides, evening primrose and phacelia have sprouted in the usually barren moonscape, ...

The International Spa Association reports the number of hotels or resorts offering spas has more than tripled: from 473 spas in 2000, to 1,662 spas in 2004.

Spas are offering exotic treatments indigenous to their location, including "lava rock massages in Hawaii, papaya scrubs in the tropics, grape seed facials in Sonoma, and maple body wraps in the Northeast."

In Arizona, "A Native American shaman ...

"If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan."

—Physician, missionary Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965)