Trials Are Like Bounced Checks

In his book When Life Is Hard, pastor James MacDonald defines a trial as a painful circumstance allowed by God to change one's conduct and character. ...

Beta Christians

When a new website launches, or when a website launches a new feature, they commonly go public for a period of time as what is called a "beta" ...

Living in an Age of Faux Friendships

In an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, William Deresiewicz examines the new forms of friendship that have emerged in the age of Facebook. ...

John Ortberg on the Importance of Spiritual Weaning

Stillness is always a prerequisite for receptivity. Telephones and television sets cannot receive messages when they are too filled with static and noise. ...

Olympic Figure Skater Paul Wylie on the Christian Life

At the 1992 Winter Olympic Games in France, American figure skater Paul Wylie won the silver medal. The victory came after a disappointing tenth-place ...

New Year's Resolutions and the Importance of Community

With a new year just around the corner, most of us are busy scribbling down resolutions. We desire radical change in the way we look, the way we behave, ...

The Day the Students Went on Strike

Anne Miller, age 22, was a few weeks into her first real teaching job—a summer program teaching at-risk middle schoolers—when she walked into ...

On Limiting God's Ability to Change Your Life

God can't clean the house of you when you're still in it.

—Anne Lamott, U.S. author (1954—)

God Never Wastes His Children's Pain

Amy Carmichael (1867–1951) was a missionary to India who suffered enormously in her life. She once wrote these words:

I have noticed that when one ...

The Relentlessly Undermining Work of Christ

Jesus relentlessly undermines all that is not god to make room for the God who has redeemed our hearts.